The Vatican Note on Financial Reform
On Monday, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace published a “Note on the reform of the international financial and monetary systems in the context of global public authority” (official version only in Italian so far; I am referencing the unofficial English translation at Radio Vaticana). Although the Note was almost certainly not in response to Occupy Wall Street, it reflects many of the same concerns and even suggests some of the same solutions as the global protest movement. As theologians and supporters of Occupy Wall Street, how can we engage this document in our theological work and in support of the movement?
Context
As I mentioned, the Note is highly unlikely to be a direct response to the Occupy Wall Street movement (although a cardinal who worked on the document has said that the Vatican and the OWS movement share goals). The Catholic hierarchy famously thinks in centuries and it strains credulity to imagine a Vatican committee turning out this document in just over a month. However, that’s more good news than bad for the protestors and those who support them: it suggests that their concerns and some of their proposed solutions have long been on the minds of the PCJP. Vatican observer John L. Allen Jr. claims that the document could signal a new theological “southern consensus,” referring to the Global South of Africa, Asia and Latin America where two-thirds of the world’s Catholics live. Allen says clergy and laity from these regions are broadly distrustful of capitalism and favor strong regulation of financial markets; if the document foreshadows greater respect for the perspectives of the Global South, that is good news for champions of economic justice everywhere.
Content
The document shares many of the values and concerns of Occupy Wall Street and echoes certain proposals for reform raised by some of the protestors. In ringing language, it places the blame for global inequities on “utilitarian thinking” and “an economic liberalism that spurns rules and controls” (using liberalism in the way economists do, meaning relatively laissez-faire or free from regulation); it calls the current economic reality a “moral crisis.” In response, it suggests the creation of a global political authority with the binding powers to promote “free and stable markets overseen by a suitable legal framework, well-functioning in support of sustainable development and social progress of all.” Public and private institutions, including financial institutions, should be governed by the principle of subsidiarity, an idea in Catholic social teaching that to the greatest extent possible, decisions should be made at the most local level, with higher authorities stepping in only when local authorities can’t effectively do the work. (Obviously, this notion of subsidiarity is in some tension with the proposal of global governance, which is one fruitful area for theologians to explore.) A few specific proposals the Note invites us to “reflect on” are taxes on financial transactions that could be used to support economies harmed by the economic crisis; that public “bailouts” of banks be conditional on “virtuous behavior”; and more effective regulation of the “shadow markets” that exist within current loopholes. This is a brief summary on the heels of plenty of good coverage of this document. Kevin Ahern, writing at Daily Theology, offers a longer and more detailed analysis of the document, with helpful historical context of the call for global governance in Catholic thought.
Response
For most scholars of Catholic thought, magisterial teachings are one source of wisdom and insight, to be considered in dialogue with the insights of Scripture, the sciences, and lived experience. However, a minority of our sisters and brothers proclaim that magisterial teaching is all the insight we might ever need to dictate our actions. (A major study of attitudes of American Catholics, released this week, cues me to point out that 85 percent of Republicans and Democrats alike agree that loyal Catholics can disagree with Church teaching.) One of my immediate reactions to the Note, after admiring its strong language and conclusions, was to hope that theologians who take most magisterial statements in context will avoid the understandable urge to canonize this one, no matter how much we may feel it reflects Good News. That would only make us look silly—or worse, hypocritical—the next time we disagree with aspects of a Vatican document and want to return to our typical dialogical approach.
One criticism that’s been leveled at the Note is that it represents “power addressing power,” focusing on those who shape financial policy rather than attempting to empower those suffering from the economy’s failings. I’d like to validate this conclusion and take it a step further: I wish the document had done more to condemn the role of individual and small-group actions in economic inequality. It does call out “behaviors like selfishness, collective greed and the hoarding of goods on a great scale,” but mostly sticks to making enemies of ideas—liberalism, utilitarianism, technocracy. One point that Occupy Wall Street makes so effectively is that there is a small group of actual people who benefit from decisions that kill jobs, drive down real wages, and keep much of the world in pain and insecurity—in other words, who benefit from and in turn promote liberalism, utilitarianism and technocracy. Occupy Wall Street calls these people to change their hearts. It calls everyone who does not benefit from economic equality to be brave enough, to care enough about their own dignity and security, to join in creating the kind of political imperative that makes solutions happen and happen fast.
The current economic crisis is a big ball of policy problems, absolutely. But it’s also a virtue problem. The Note on financial reform calls all of us to practice the virtue of solidarity. Occupy Wall Street calls the one percent to renounce the vice of greed, and calls the 99 percent to leave behind the vices of apathy and despair. All of these changes need to happen if we are to become more just people working and living in a more just economic world. May God help us get there.
Many Occupy Wall Street protestors support certain policy changes, like the tax on financial transactions the Note mentions, but the movement as a whole has never claimed to offer a full set of practical solutions to the moral outrages they herald. (Writer Lemony Snicket on the movement: “It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to solve problems. It is often the job of the people inside, who have paper, pens, desks, and an impressive view.”) The PCJP Note occupies a middle ground between the prophetic protestors, with their palpable anger and models of egalitarian life, and those with the present power to implement the changes the Note suggests. As theologians, we can choose to lift up prophetic voices or to recommend specific policies. I have briefly pointed to a virtue ethics approach to financial reform, and many more learned activists and scholars will respond to this document, and to the prophetic call of Occupy Wall Street, with insights from their own fields and traditions. The Note on financial reform was not intended to be a Vatican stamp of approval for the goals and critiques raised by Occupy Wall Street. Let’s not try to frame it as one. It’s a rich starting point for further dialogue, and an inspiring reminder that at least one small group of powerful, wealthy men believes—as do the protestors—that a more just, humane world economy is possible.
Kate Ward is a Ph.D. student in theological ethics at Boston College and a coeditor of the blog Young Adult Catholics.
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Bob, thanks for your comments. I share your sense of moment and promise–I think OWS has brought that to so many of us who hope for a more just world. The Vatican document’s coming out just now only increases my hope that the “moment” will continue to strengthen and be taken seriously.
Kevin, that’s a good question. I agree with you that most of us grow up with American exceptionalism among the many other cultural biases we inherit, and we need to be careful about how that affects our activism. One of the positives about OWS’s refusal, so far, to adopt specific policy prescriptions is that they’re not calling for things that obviously benefit one nation over another, like “bring back American jobs” or whatever. I also tend to think that, as Americans, we do well when we work on our own house in terms of justice because becoming involved in the struggles of other communities can so easily become hegemonic, even with the best intentions. (Subsidiarity!) And there’s something undeniably powerful about the members of one community shaming their own, saying “You do not live out the standards that our community has promised to each other.” The media has worked very hard to “other” the OWS protestors (“dirty hippies” etc) for just that reason.
One more perhaps related thought. I think many global justice-minded Americans (and probably other citizens of prosperous nations with colonialist histories) feel that any sort of nationalist feeling is somehow inappropriate for them, even though it might be admirable in other nations whose citizens are struggling together to increase their prosperity. Is it “American exceptionalism” to say “Hey Wall Street, the U.S. promises a fair shot at prosperity to all, and you’ve taken that away from so many. You are not just bad global citizens but bad Americans?” There’s definitely a valorization of American imagery and values in there, but I don’t know that it’s necessarily a valorization over something else.
I may have moved VERY far from your original intent, but it shows how thought provoking your question is. Thanks to both of you for your comments!
I have been reflecting on this Vatican document and reading commentary and really appreciate your comments, Kate. I am struck by a few cords running through the document, most notably two: the first is the acknowledgment that the global human family is at a transformational precipice, and second is the concepts of power and authority. To the latter, there is a theological and ecclesiastical aspect that needs to be examined, given the the power structure of the Roman Catholic Church and a governance that simply would not allow any of the reforms suggested in the documents to happen. The credibility of the document is in question for me until that kind of engagement and dialogue takes place, and so your caution, Kate, about quickly embracing this document, toward the end of your thoughts, is well said.
But to the second point, I do think the document has “touchstoned” the evolutionary moment Occupy has illuminated, especially when paired with the “Arab Spring.” Part of me wonders if the Vatican speed in creating this document is its own global perspective on the human vista, the human perspective, something the world human family is beginning to grasp in real time through technological socialization. An emerging world culture through a plurality of shared norms, customs, values, traditions, social roles, symbols and languages being realized – and, in my opinion, being celebrated through the Occupy movement. There is something about this truly global institution – the Roman Catholic Church – connecting on these levels, that causes me to wonder about the “yes we can” and “hope” and “change” yearning Americans dreamed for about three years ago as signs and symbols of a global, human awakening. It seems we are at a moment that is beyond politics and governments. Aspirational thinking of this kind happens in human development throughout human history, but as the Vatican document notes, without appropriate reflection, dialogue, measure, evaluation, compassion, understanding … love … the results can be opposite to those hopes, and tend toward violence. A dear friend of mine, a physician living in the totalitarian society of Belarus, often says to me that most revolutions are “begun by visionaries, finished by fools.” The urgency of theological and philosophical critical thinking brought to this moment cannot be stressed enough.
Great post on the relationship between the Note and OWS. While I believe the Note reflects the Catholic Cosmopolitan vision and includes the critique from the “south,” I would not make the claim that Allen does here. While it is “written” by an African, the note does not mention specific concerns of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
But this raises a provocative question. Kate (and others), how do you think that the OWS would relate to a “greater respect for the perspectives of the Global South?” My experience is that most Americans, even the most “progressive” still share the vision of American exceptionalism. While there are messages of global solidarity in the OWS and there are occupy movements in other places in the world, the voices are still largely American.