HOLY SEE RESPONSE: A SENIOR Vatican official said the Occupy Wall Street protests were justified as the Holy See called for global financial rules to be overhauled and an international market regulator to be established.
“Do people at a certain time have a right to say: ‘Do business differently, look at the way you are doing business because this is not leading to our welfare, to our good’?” Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson told reporters at the Vatican Monday.
“Can people demand this of the people of Wall Street? I think people can and should be able to.”
The comments came as the Vatican office he heads, the pontifical council for justice and peace, called for changes in the way financial markets are run and regulated.
Publishing a document entitled Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority , the Vatican points out that, between 1900 and 2000, the world population increased almost fourfold but “the distribution of wealth did not become fairer but in many cases worsened”.
The document argues that Bretton Woods institutions of the early 1970s are no longer effective.
“In particular, the International Monetary Fund has lost an essential element for stabilising world finance, that of regulating the overall money supply and vigilance over the amount of credit risk taken on by the system.”
It argues that the international monetary system must be reformed. The international community must commit to “some form of global monetary management”, in other words, a new central world bank.