Encyclical Caritas in Veritate of Benedict XVI

Economics and finance at the service of man

 

On July 7, 2009, the Vatican released Pope Benedict XVI’s third encyclical letter titled Caritas in Veritate (charity in truth, as first words of the encyclical explain). The subject is "integral human development in charity and truth" and the document was published on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio on the development of peoples. This long-awaited encyclical letter of Benedict XVI was supposed to be released in 2007 but, as the Holy Father explained, the new encyclical was delayed in order to add comments relevant to the present financial crisis. This subject has not been treated since Pope Paul VI’s encyclical was published in 1967.

The day after the encyclical was released to the public, Benedict XVI offered a summary during the Wednesday general audience. He reminded us that the Church does not offer technical solutions, but principles upon which any economic and financial system can be based, in order to truly be at the service of the human person:

"A better future for all is possible, if it is founded on the rediscovery of fundamental ethical (moral) values. What is needed, then, is new financial planning... based on the ethical foundation of responsibility before God and to the human being as God’s creature.

“The Encyclical does not of course aim to offer technical solutions to the vast social problems of the contemporary world. This lies outside the competence of the Magisterium of the Church (cf. n. 9). Yet, it recalls the great principles that prove indispensable to building human development in the years to come. Among them, in the first place, is attention to human life, considered to be the core of all true progress."

The Church leaves the faithful free to apply the system that would implement the principles of her social doctrine in the best way possible. To our knowledge, no other solution than the Social Credit financial proposals (first conceived by the Scottish engineer Clifford Hugh Douglas and after explained by Louis Even in the "Michael" Journal) would apply the social doctrine of the Church in a way that is truly Christian. As a matter of fact, a commission of nine theologians who were appointed by the Roman Catholic Bishops of the Province of Quebec in 1939 concluded that Social Credit was neither tainted with Socialism nor Communism. They stated that there was nothing in the Social Credit doctrine contrary to the teachings of the Church and that any Catholic was free to support it without danger.

In Caritas in Veritate, Benedict XVI repeats the fundamental message of Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio: "In order to be authentic, development must be integral, that is, it has to promote the good of every man and of the whole man." (Populorum Progressio, n. 14.) In his Wednesday audience, Benedict XVI said:

"The Gospel reminds us that man does not live on bread alone: it is impossible to satisfy the profound thirst of the human heart solely with material goods. The human horizon is undoubtedly higher and broader; for this reason every development programme must consider alongside the material the spiritual growth of the human person, who is endowed with both a body and a soul. This is the integral development to which the Church’s social doctrine constantly refers."

To be authentic, progress must not only be economic and technological, but also moral. Since man is made up of a body and a soul, he has both material and spiritual needs.

Many articles in previous issues of "Michael" showed how the Social Credit philosophy would apply the teachings of the Popes on social justice in a concrete manner. Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical is no exception. It contains principles which, to our knowledge, can be applied only by the Social Credit financial proposals, as you will read in the following paragraphs.

"Finance — through the renewed structures and operating methods that have to be designed after its misuse, which wreaked such havoc on the real economy — now needs to go back to being an instrument directed towards improved wealth creation and development. Insofar as they are instruments, the entire economy and finance, not just certain sectors, must be used in an ethical way." Caritas in Veritate, 65.

 

Redfining the goal of economics

In Paragraph 32 of the new encyclical one reads that the massive increase in poverty in our society brings about "the progressive erosion of ‘social capital’: the network of the relationships of trust, dependability, and respect for rules, all of which are indispensable for any form of civil coexistence."

Those who have read Louis Even’s book In this Age of Plenty or the 10 Lessons on Social Credit, know that it is important not to confuse ends and means. The goal or the end of economics is to allow goods to meet the needs; not only to produce the necessities of life but to also make sure that these goods actually reach the human beings who need them. We have to be sure that the goods, once produced, do not remain on the shelves and people starve to death in consequence. It is therefore a matter of both production and distribution: goods must be produced and then distributed. There are products in plenty today; it is the distribution that is defective.

When the Holy Father talks about "social capital: the network of relationships of trust, dependability, and respect for rules, all of which are indispensable for any form of civil coexistence", it reminds us of these words of Geoffrey Dobbs that we quoted in Lesson One of the book The Social Credit financial proposals explained in 10 lessons:

"‘Credit’ is another word for ‘faith’ or ‘confidence’, social credit is therefore the faith or confidence which binds any society together… How can we live in peace or comfort if we cannot trust our neighbours? How could we use the roads if we could not trust others to observe the rules of the road? And what happens when the concept of Christian marriage and to the Christian family and its upbringing, is abandoned?"

The objective of economics is not to supply jobs or to make profit and economic growth at any cost. (As Benedict XVI wrote in paragraph 68, "development is exposed as a destructive sham if it relies on the ‘wonders’ of finance in order to sustain unnatural and consumerist growth.") All of these — jobs, profits, economic growth — are only the means; the end is to satisfy human needs in the respect of the dignity and freedom of the human person. If goods can be produced with less human labour, thanks to machines and new technology, that is just great. It will allow man to give his leisure time over to other activities, free activities of his own choosing. (But this providing he is given an income to replace the salary he lost with the installation of the machine. This is what the Social Credit dividend is designed for.)

Profit is not the ultimate end either, but is also a means. The end or goal, let us repeat it, should be the satisfaction of human needs. Benedict XVI writes: "Profit is useful if it serves as a means towards an end that provides a sense both of how to produce it and how to make good use of it. Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty." (n. 21.)

"Further and deeper reflection on the meaning of the economy and its goals"

Finance is only a means, an instrument, and not an end in itself: its goal is to finance production and distribution. Finance also must submit to moral rules: "Finance, therefore — through the renewed structures and operating methods that have to be designed after its misuse, which wreaked such havoc on the real economy — now needs to go back to being an instrument directed towards improved wealth creation and development. Insofar as they are instruments, the entire economy and finance, not just certain sectors, must be used in an ethical way so as to create suitable conditions for human development and for the development of peoples." (Caritas in Veritate, 65.)

John Paul II wrote about systems that became "structures of sin" ("the all-consuming desire for profit and the thirst for power, with the intention of imposing one’s will upon others", cf. encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis, 37). But these systems are run by human beings who are also responsible for their actions. Benedict XVI says in Caritas in Veritate (71): "Development is impossible without upright men and women, without financiers and politicians whose consciences are finely attuned to the requirements of the common good… When technology is allowed to take over, the result is confusion between ends and means, such that the sole criterion for action in business is thought to be the maximization of profit, in politics the consolidation of power, and in science the findings of research."

Present-day problems

The Pope continues to describe the present problems of economics and society: "The technical forces in play, the global interrelations, the damaging effects on the real economy of badly managed and largely speculative financial dealing, large-scale migration of peoples, often provoked by some particular circumstance and then given insufficient attention, the unregulated exploitation of the earth’s resources: all this leads us today to reflect on the measures that would be necessary to provide a solution to problems that are not only new in comparison to those addressed by Pope Paul VI, but also, and above all, of decisive impact upon the present and future good of humanity… The current crisis obliges us to re-plan our journey, to set ourselves new rules and to discover new forms of commitment, to build on positive experiences and to reject negative ones." (n. 21.)

"The scandal of glaring inequalities continues. Corruption and illegality are unfortunately evident in the conduct of the economic and political class in rich countries, both old and new, as well as in poor ones (n. 22.) … The global market has stimulated first and foremost, on the part of rich countries, a search for areas in which to outsource production at low cost with a view to reducing the prices of many goods… Consequently, the market has prompted new forms of competition between States as they seek to attract foreign businesses to set up production centres, by means of a variety of instruments… budgetary policies, with cuts in social spending often made under pressure from international financial institutions, can leave citizens powerless in the face of old and new risks." (n. 25.)

Nations are fighting against each other to attract those coveted jobs even if it means giving extravagant subsidies to corporations. Just to mention a recent occurrence, it has been calculated that the financial aid of the Canadian and Ontarian governments last June to help General Motors amounted to 1.4 million dollars per job. This is what happens when the means (the job) is more important than the ends (satisfying human needs).

"On this earth there is room for everyone: here the entire human family must find the resources to live with dignity, through the help of nature itself — God’s gift to his children — and through hard work and creativity." (n. 50.)

 

Feed the hungry

"Life in many poor countries is still extremely insecure as a consequence of food shortages and the situation could become worse. Hunger still reaps enormous numbers of victims among those who, like Lazarus, are not permitted to take their place at the rich man’s table, contrary to the hopes expressed by Paul VI. To feed the hungry (cf. Mt 25: 35, 37, 42) is an ethical imperative for the universal Church as she responds to the teachings of her Founder, the Lord Jesus, concerning solidarity and the sharing of goods.

"Moreover, the elimination of world hunger has also, in the global era, become a requirement for safeguarding the peace and stability of the planet. Hunger is not so much dependent on lack of material things as on the shortage of social resources, the most important of which are institutional. What is missing, in other words, is a network of economic institutions capable of guaranteeing regular access to sufficient food and water for nutritional needs. Also they must be capable of addressing the primary needs and necessities ensuing from genuine food crises, whether due to natural causes or political irresponsibility, nationally and internationally.

"The problem of food insecurity needs to be addressed within a long-term perspective, eliminating the structural causes that give rise to it and promoting the agricultural development of poorer countries. This can be done by investing in rural infrastructures, irrigation systems, transport, organization of markets, and in the development and dissemination of agricultural technology that can make the best use of the human, natural and socio-economic resources that are more readily available at the local level, while guaranteeing their sustainability over the long term as well." (n. 27.)

Distributive justice

The Holy Father signs his new encyclical

As the Holy Father pointed out, it is not production that is lacking ("lack of material things") but distribution that is defective. One must therefore have recourse to "distributive justice", to distribution through a dividend.

"The social doctrine of the Church has unceasingly highlighted the importance of distributive justice and social justice for the market economy (n. 35) … Economic life undoubtedly requires contracts (wages given in exchange of work, for example), in order to regulate relations of exchange between goods of equivalent value. But it also needs just laws and forms of redistribution governed by politics, and what is more, it needs works redolent of the spirit of gift." (n. 37.)

Those who have studied the Social Credit philosophy know that wages and salaries are not sufficient to buy all of production and that it is not everyone who is hired in production. (Because of the machines that replace human labour, among other reasons.) That is why Social Credit proposes to give a monthly dividend (sum of money) to every human being (on top of wages and salaries for those who have a paid job). This is because each human being is truly co-owner and co-heir of the two largest factors of production: natural resources (sun, water, rain, wind, minerals, all of which are gifts of God to all men) and progress, the legacy of the inventions of past generations.

In Caritas in Veritate, Benedict XVI insists forcefully on the economy of gift, for people and institutions alike, an economy in which many goods and services can be obtained for free. Everything cannot be calculated in wages and salaries, a lot of good can be done through voluntary help. In a Social Credit system, since all citizens would have economic security guaranteed by a dividend, mutual aid and volunteer work would blossom naturally. God Himself showers us with free production with natural resources and food given in plenty, so the Social Credit dividend would be the reflection of the generosity of God.

Karl Marx claimed that work created all wealth and Adam Smith said that capital (money invested in an enterprise) also contributes to production. However, both ignored what C.H. Douglas called the "cultural inheritance", the legacy of natural and inventions that are responsible for more than 90% of today’s production in developed nations. Pope John Paul II wrote about this in 1981 in his Encyclical letter Laborem Exercens (On human work).

"Through his work man enters into two inheritances: the inheritance of what is given to the whole of humanity in the resources of nature, and the inheritance of what others have already developed on the basis of those resources, primarily by developing technology, that is to say, by producing a whole collection of increasingly perfect instruments for work. In working, man also "enters into the labour of others." (n. 13).

In his new encyclical Benedict XVI also talks about technology (n. 69): "Technology enables us to exercise dominion over matter, to reduce risks, to save labour, to improve our conditions of life… Technology, in this sense, is a response to God’s command to till and to keep the land (cf. Gen 2:15) that he has entrusted to humanity, and it must serve to reinforce the covenant between human beings and the environment, a covenant that should mirror God’s creative love."

The Sovereign Pontiff added that like in any human activity, technology must be submitted to ethics, especially as regards bio-technology (in-vitro fertilization, embryo research, the possibility of manufacturing clones) where the danger of manipulating human life is omnipresent. "In this most delicate and critical area, the fundamental question asserts itself forcefully: is man the product of his own labours or does he depend on God?" (n. 74).

Paul VI signing Populorum progressio on March 26, 1967

"More than any other, the individual who is animated by true charity labours skilfully to discover the causes of misery, to find the means to combat it, and to overcome it resolutely... Genuine development is not wealth that is self-centered and sought for its own sake, but rather an economy which is put at the service of man, the bread which is daily distributed to all, as a source of brotherhood and a sign of providence." — Paul VI, encyclical Populorum progressio

 

Plundering resources

In Paragraph 49 of Caritas in Veritate, Benedict XVI wrote: "The fact that some States, power groups and companies hoard non-renewable energy resources represents a grave obstacle to development in poor countries. Those countries lack the economic means either to gain access to existing sources of non-renewable energy or to finance research into new alternatives. The stockpiling of natural resources, which in many cases are found in the poor countries themselves, gives rise to exploitation and frequent conflicts between and within nations. These conflicts are often fought on the soil of those same countries, with a heavy toll of death, destruction and further decay. The international community has an urgent duty to find institutional means of regulating the exploitation of non-renewable resources, involving poor countries in the process, in order to plan together for the future."

One example that comes to mind is that of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, also known as Congo-Kinshasa or former Zaire). Africa is the martyr-continent of modern times and the DRC is its bleeding heart: every month, 45,000 Congolese die in armed conflicts. The MONUC (United Nations mission in the DRC), with 20,000 employees and an annual budget of one billion dollars, observes and counts the deaths without intervention. This brought the Bishops of the DRC to say: "We don’t need the UN to count our dead people". (One could add, especially if it costs a billion dollars…)

These civil wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that have caused the death of over 10 million people since 1994 are launched by rebels with the support of neighbouring countries like Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. The real purpose behind these wars is to allow the plundering of DRC’s precious minerals like coltan (columbite-tantalite, which is used in electronic products like cell phones, DVD players and computers), diamonds, cobalt, gold, copper and other resources for the benefit of multinational corporations. DRC’s mineral exports officially amount to 3 billion dollars per year but the plundered minerals are worth at least twice as much. All this occurs while 75% of the Congolese population live under the poverty level, earning less than a dollar per day.

The Pope added that "at present it is possible to achieve improved energy efficiency while at the same time encouraging research into alternative forms of energy." In the documentary Home created by photographer and film-maker Yann Arthus-Bertrand that was released in 130 countries on Earth Day, June 5, 2009, one can hear:

"The sun is the earth’s original energy source; can humans not imitate plants and capture its energy? In one hour, the sun gives the earth the same amount of energy as that consumed by all humanity in one year. As long as the earth exists, the sun’s energy will be inexhaustible. All we have to do is stop drilling the earth and start looking to the sky. All we have to do is learn cultivate the sun." Alternative technology exists, with cheap costs (like the sun, which no multinational can control), but there are powerful financial interests that still impose the use of oil on our societies.

The true problem: falling birth rates

For years, one has heard the so-called experts claiming that there were too many people on earth. They said that there were not enough resources on the globe to support them so we needed to have recourse to abortion and artificial birth control (plus wars, famine and epidemics) to reduce population drastically. (Many developed countries still impose the legalization of abortion and artificial contraception as conditions for financial aid to developing countries.) Benedict XVI destroys this Malthusian myth by saying (n. 44) that the real problem today in the world is not overpopulation but the decline in births, or what some people call the "demographic winter":

"To consider population increase as the primary cause of underdevelopment is mistaken, even from an economic point of view. Suffice it to consider, on the one hand, the significant reduction in infant mortality and the rise in average life expectancy found in economically developed countries, and on the other hand, the signs of crisis observable in societies that are registering an alarming decline in their birth rate.

"Morally responsible openness to life represents a rich social and economic resource. Populous nations have been able to emerge from poverty thanks not least to the size of their population and the talents of their people. On the other hand, formerly prosperous nations are presently passing through a phase of uncertainty and in some cases decline, precisely because of their falling birth rates; this has become a crucial problem for highly affluent societies. The decline in births, falling at times beneath the so-called "replacement level", also puts a strain on social welfare systems, increases their cost, eats into savings and hence the financial resources needed for investment, reduces the availability of qualified labourers, and narrows the "brain pool" upon which nations can draw for their needs…

"These situations are symptomatic of scant confidence in the future and moral weariness. It is thus becoming a social and even economic necessity once more to hold up to future generations the beauty of marriage and the family, and the fact that these institutions correspond to the deepest needs and dignity of the person. In view of this, States are called to enact policies promoting the centrality and the integrity of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, the primary vital cell of society, and to assume responsibility for its economic and fiscal needs, while respecting its essentially relational character."

Let us add that in a Social Credit system, the arrival of a newborn child in a family will not represent a financial burden. This is because the newborn child will also receive his monthly dividend as new shareholder of the resources of the nation, which will automatically increase the family income.

Alain Pilote (left, with a white beret), waves to the Pope in St. Peter’s Square, during the Wednesday general audience, April 1, 2009.

 

The environment

Another worry today is the environment. The ecological balance of the planet that is threatened by pollution and the waste of resources — problems which, as the attentive students of Social Credit know, are directly caused by the present financial system. This brings about, among other things, the creation of useless needs to create jobs that are not really necessary. Douglas justly pointed out that once the necessities of life are guaranteed, most people will content themselves with a simpler lifestyle which in turn will reduce the destruction of the environment by far. Pope Benedict XVI did not forget about the environment issue in his latest encyclical:

"Today the subject of development is also closely related to the duties arising from our relationship to the natural environment. The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole. When nature, including the human being, is viewed as the result of mere chance or evolutionary determinism, our sense of responsibility wanes. In nature, the believer recognizes the wonderful result of God’s creative activity, which we may use responsibly to satisfy our legitimate needs, material or otherwise, while respecting the intrinsic balance of creation. If this vision is lost, we end up either considering nature an untouchable taboo or, on the contrary, abusing it. Neither attitude is consonant with the Christian vision of nature as the fruit of God’s creation… Nature is at our disposal not as ‘a heap of scattered refuse’, but as a gift of the Creator who has given it an inbuilt order, enabling man to draw from it the principles needed in order "to till it and keep it" (Gen 2:15). (n. 48.)

"On this earth there is room for everyone: here the entire human family must find the resources to live with dignity, through the help of nature itself — God’s gift to his children — and through hard work and creativity. At the same time we must recognize our grave duty to hand the earth on to future generations in such a condition that they too can worthily inhabit it and continue to cultivate it… One of the greatest challenges facing the economy is to achieve the most efficient use — not abuse — of natural resources… (n. 50.)

To save and care for nature and the animals is good. However, to save human beings is even more important. Benedict XVI explains: "It is contrary to authentic development to view nature as something more important than the human person. This position leads to attitudes of neo-paganism or a new pantheism — human salvation cannot come from nature alone, understood in a purely naturalistic sense. (Like transforming the earth into a god such as Gaia, the Greek mother-earth goddess.) This having been said, it is also necessary to reject the opposite position, which aims at total technical dominion over nature, because the natural environment is more than raw material to be manipulated at our pleasure; it is a wondrous work of the Creator containing a ‘grammar’ which sets forth ends and criteria for its wise use, not its reckless exploitation." (n. 48.)

On this matter, Pope John Paul II wrote in his Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus (n. 38): "In addition to the irrational destruction of the natural environment, we must also mention the more serious destruction of the human environment, something which is by no means receiving the attention it deserves. Although people are rightly worried — though much less than they should be — about preserving the natural habitats of the various animal species threatened with extinction, because they realize that each of these species makes its particular contribution to the balance of nature in general, too little effort is made to safeguard the moral conditions for an authentic ‘human ecology’."

Family founded on marriage

If there are laws that must be abided by in order to keep the equilibrium of nature, there are also laws that must be observed in order to keep the equilibrium of the human environment. This begins with the respect of the family, founded on marriage between a man and a woman. Benedict XVI develops this point in his encyclical (n. 51):

"If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves. The book of nature is one and indivisible: it takes in not only the environment but also life, sexuality, marriage, the family, social relations: in a word, integral human development. Our duties towards the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person, considered in himself and in relation to others."

In his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love, n. 25-26) Benedict XVI wrote: "In God’s family, no one ought to go without the necessities of life... The aim of a just social order is to guarantee to each person, according to the principle of subsidiarity, his share of the community’s goods."

Work for justice

In his new encyclical Benedict XVI concludes that in order to change the world and bring it in coherence with God’s will, and to put an end to the scandal of poverty and hunger in the world, we must realize that we are all God’s children, sons of the same Father and that love for God must necessarily be accompanied by love of neighbour (n. 78):

"Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is. In the face of the enormous problems surrounding the development of peoples, which almost make us yield to discouragement, we find solace in the sayings of our Lord Jesus Christ, who teaches us: ‘Apart from me you can do nothing’ (Jn 15:5) and then encourages us: ‘I am with you always, to the close of the age’ (Mt 28:20)… Awareness of God’s undying love sustains us in our laborious and stimulating work for justice and the development of peoples, amid successes and failures, in the ceaseless pursuit of a just ordering of human affairs."

Let us conclude this article with these words of Pope Paul VI, taken from his encyclical Populorum Progressio (nn. 75 and 86):

"More than any other, the individual who is animated by true charity labours skilfully to discover the causes of misery, to find the means to combat it, and to overcome it resolutely. A creator of peace, he will follow his path, lighting the lamps of joy and playing their brilliance and loveliness on the hearts of men across the surface of the globe, leading them to recognize, across all frontiers, the faces of their brothers, the faces of their friends… All of you who have heard the appeal of suffering peoples, all of you who are working to answer their cries, you are the apostles of a development which is good and genuine, which is not wealth that is self-centered and sought for its own sake, but rather an economy which is put at the service of man, the bread which is daily distributed to all, as a source of brotherhood and a sign of providence."

 

Pope against one-world government Most of the newspapers and other news media retained only one line of Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical. Many of them ran the following headline: the Pope is for a "world political authority" or even a "one-world government." But the reality is quite the opposite. The Holy Father speaks directly against a world government that would abolish national States and here we quote an excellent explanation from editorialist John-Henry Westen of LifeSiteNews.com: "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." (End of the quote from LifeSiteNews.com) At the beginning of Paragraph 67, Pope Benedict explains that the "world political authority" that needs to be reformed — a need that was mentioned by John XXIII in Pacem in Terris and Paul VI in Populorum Progressio — is the United Nations: "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." There is no question of turning the United Nations into a one-world government that will eliminate nation States, it is only about creating a place where heads of states and representatives of nations could meet and talk to each other. All the while respecting the concept of "family of nations" with each country continuing to exist and keep its sovereignty.