Pope Prepares World For The New Economy

(Zenit.org).- The market economy is only a path to progress if it is oriented to the common good, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope on Saturday considered the possible shortfalls of the free market system when he received in audience members of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation. The foundation was founded by Pope John Paul II in 1993 as a lay foundation that aims to promote the social doctrine of the Church in professional and business sectors. The foundation hosted in Rome on Friday their annual international conference.

In his address, Benedict XVI called for a rethinking of predominant economic models.

"The financial crisis that has struck the industrialized nations, the emergent nations and those that are developing, shows in a clear way how the economic and financial paradigms that have been dominant in recent years must be rethought," he said.

The Pope lauded his listeners' consideration of the "interdependency between institutions, society and the market."

Drawing from the 1991 encyclical by his predecessor, after which the Centesimus Annus foundation is named, the Holy Father noted how "the market economy, understood as 'an economic system which recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the means of production, as well as free human creativity in the economic sector' can only be recognized as a way of economic and civil progress if it is oriented to the common good....

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