Paradise? or Hell on Earth Coming Soon?

Pope calls for world authority as 'moral force'

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The world authority envisioned by two popes as a way to ensure global peace and justice would not be a superpower, but primarily a moral force with limited jurisdiction, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The pope made his remarks Dec. 3 to a plenary session of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which was scheduled to meet for three days to discuss the theme of "political authority and global governance."

In his address, Pope Benedict recalled that Blessed John XXIII had called for the "construction of a world community, with a corresponding authority," to serve the "common good of the human family."

The pope also cited his own 2009 encyclical "Caritas in Veritate," in which he called for a "true world political authority" to ensure international cooperation, peace and environmental protection.

The church offers "principles of reflection, criteria of judgment and practical guidelines" for such an organization, but no concrete legal or political recommendations, Pope Benedict said in his address.

Yet the pope stipulated that the proposed body would not be a "superpower, concentrated in the hands of a few, which would dominate all peoples, exploiting the weakest." The authority in question, he said, "must be understood, first and foremost, as a moral force, a power to influence in accordance with reason, that is, a participatory authority, limited by law in its jurisdiction."

The council's president, Cardinal Peter Turkson, told Vatican Radio that the agenda for the plenary session would include the topic of global financial governance as a response to the world financial crisis.

In October 2011, the council called for establishment of a "central world bank" to regulate the global financial industry and the international money supply as a step toward the world authority envisioned by Blessed John and Pope Benedict.

Pope Benedict's address also touched on threats to human dignity from different forms of materialism in contemporary culture.

"The man of today is considered primarily from a biological point of view, or as 'human capital,' a 'resource,' a cog in a productive and financial machine that dominates him," the pope said.

"New ideologies -- such as the hedonistic and egoistic one of sexual and reproductive rights, or that of a disorderly financial capitalism that transgresses politics and dismantles the real economy -- contribute to make the employee and his work seem 'minor' goods and to undermine the natural foundations of society, especially the family," he said.

END

“We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”
(Pope Boniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.)

Editorial: Pope’s New Encyclical Speaks Against, not for One-World Government and New World Order

by LifeSiteNews.com

Editorial by John-Henry Westen

July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Newspapers, blogs, talk-shows on radio and television are full of discussion over Pope Benedict XVI's supposed call for a "new world order" or a "one-world government." These ideas are, however, neither based in reality nor a clear reading of the Pope's latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, the release of which yesterday spawned the heated discussion.

The Pope actually speaks directly against a one-world government, and, as would be expected from those who have read his previous writings, calls for massive reform of the United Nations. Confusion seems to have come from paragraph 67 of the encyclical, which has some choice pull-quotes which have spiced the pages of the world's news, from the New York Times to those of conspiracy theorist bloggers seeing the Pope as the Anti-Christ.

The key quote which has led to the charge reads: "To manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result; to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration: for all this, there is urgent need of a true world political authority, as my predecessor Blessed John XXIII indicated some years ago."

However, in paragraph 41, the Holy Father specifically differentiates his concept of a world political authority from that of a one-world government. "We must," he says "promote a dispersed political authority." He explains that "The integrated economy of the present day does not make the role of States redundant, but rather it commits governments to greater collaboration with one another. Both wisdom and prudence suggest not being too precipitous in declaring the demise of the State. In terms of the resolution of the current crisis, the State's role seems destined to grow, as it regains many of its competences. In some nations, moreover, the construction or reconstruction of the State remains a key factor in their development."

Later in the encyclical (57) he speaks of the opposite concept to one- world government -subsidiarity (the principle of Catholic social teaching which states that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority) - as being essential. "In order not to produce a dangerous universal power of a tyrannical nature, the governance of globalization must be marked by subsidiarity," says the Pope.

Another of the key quotes which is being extracted for shock value from the encyclical is this: "In the face of the unrelenting growth of global interdependence, there is a strongly felt need, even in the midst of a global recession, for a reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth."

Since long before his papacy, Joseph Ratzinger has vigorously fought the United Nations' vision of a 'New World Order'. As early as 1997, and repeated subsequently, Ratzinger took public aim at such a vision, noting that the philosophy coming from UN conferences and the Millennium Summit "proposes strategies to reduce the number of guests at the table of humanity, so that the presumed happiness [we] have attained will not be affected."

"At the base of this New World Order", he said is the ideology of "women's empowerment," which erroneously sees "the principal obstacles to [a woman's] fulfillment [as] the family and maternity." The then-cardinal advised that "at this stage of the development of the new image of the new world, Christians - and not just them but in any case they even more than others - have the duty to protest."

Benedict XVI in fact repeats those criticisms in the new encyclical. In Caritas in Veritate, the Pope slams "practices of demographic control, on the part of governments that often promote contraception and even go so far as to impose abortion." He also denounces international economic bodies such as the IMF and World Bank (without specifically naming them) for their lending practices which tie aid to so-called 'family planning.' "There is reason to suspect that development aid is sometimes linked to specific health-care policies which de facto involve the imposition of strong birth control measures," says the encyclical.

Any vision of a proper ordering of the world, of international economics or political cooperation, suggests the Pope, must be based on a "moral order." That includes first and foremost "the fundamental right to life" from conception to natural death, the recognition of the family based on marriage between one man and one woman as the basis of society and freedom for faith and cooperation among all peoples based on principles of natural law.

simple Faith wrote:Columba asked: "On a little side note. Can I still believe in God?"
Well Columba I guess if you don't feel obliged to believe in the Pope appointed by God there is no reason why you should have to believe in God also. After all why should the buck stop with the Pope, why not push it further up the line?

columba wrote:

Sorry SF. I wasn't aware that you were present at the conclave in 1958 and are able to assure us and confirm, that God didn't in fact choose Cardinal Siri as pope and that pressure wasn't exerted on him to decline the offer. Just saying; cos if it were true, his replacement would not have been God's choice. Hmmm..That would have serious ramifications right to the present day. Anyway, I'll take your word for it.... Hold on a minute!... Where you even born then?

columba wrote:

Mike, Those things which I believe to be theologically possible, you deem impossible; Those things which I believe to be theologically impossible, You deem possible. That's where we're at on almost every topic.

CANON XI. –If any one saith, that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them; or even that the grace, whereby we are justified, is only the favour of God; let him be anathema.

columba wrote:
The Cardinal Siri case is one such example. I leave the possibility open; you shut the door, despite the fact that these "conspiracies" aren't without some credible evidence and are not born in a vacuum. The condition of the Church over the past several decades lends extra plausibility to such theories (including that of JPI) not less. If you don't want to face up to uncomfortable possibilities, that's up to you. Me; I'll take the good with the bad.

Mryan wrote:
And, if the Church allows for the hope of salvation for non-water baptized infants, I have the same hope, while you deny it.

MRyan wrote:
And columba says that the just saints of the old dispensation were justified by the imputation of the justice and merits of Christ, inclusive of the remission of sins; to the exclusion of the grace and the charity

George Brenner Wrote:
For some reason I turned the book over, upside down when I shivered at what I saw. It was so obvious to me and so evil !

Simple faith wrote:
In the meantime I'll continue believing in God and His Pope.
Darn!... Another problem... Don't the sedevacantists and the fence-sitters believe in the same God as me?
That would mean... Actually, what would it mean? This One World Church stuff can be quite complicated.
Ah well, back to the drawing board.