Vatican urges major economic reform

[October 24, 2011]  VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican has called for a radical reform of the world's financial system, including the creation of a global political authority to manage the economy.

The aim is for a new world economic order based on ethics and the search for the common good.

The proposal by the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, released Monday, follows up on Pope Benedict XVI's 2009 economic encyclical that denounced a profit-at-all-cost mentality as responsible for the global financial meltdown.

The new document stresses that "the economy needs ethics."

It suggested that the reform process begin with the United Nations as its point of reference.

[Associated Press]

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