Pope Benedict XVI
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The current economic situation is a moment of "opportunity" and could be a time for a "revision of development models and of a new organization in the world of finance", the Pope has told a gathering of businessmen.
Pope Benedict repeated the importance of one of the lessons in his most recent encyclical, Caritas in veritate, emphasising that putting the person at the centre of the economy is crucial, the Catholic News Agency reports.
Ethical and spiritual concerns should be favoured over those of strictly material and technical nature, he told the group that met him at the Vatican on Thursday.
The Pope restated his call for a reform of the United Nations: "while recommending that politics not be subordinate to financial mechanisms, I encouraged the reform and creation of an international juridical and political order (adapted to global structures of economy and finance) in order more effectively to achieve the common good of the human family."
Businesses can be "vital and produce 'social wealth' if the businessmen and managers are guided by a far-sighted view, that prefers investment in the long term to speculative profit and that promotes innovation instead of thinking of accumulating riches only for itself", he added.
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Pope Benedict calls for renewal of business world with human principles (Catholic News Agency)