Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Vatican

April 24, 2012

Kishore Jayabalan: Vatican supports dignity of work

The Detroit News editorial page today features Kishore Jayabalan’s commentary regarding the pro-business statement made by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (PCJP). Jayabalan, Director of Istituto Acton in Rome, says this: It may be easier to describe the contents of the PCJP statement by saying what it is explicitly not. Continue Reading...
April 10, 2012

‘The Transformative Power of Work’

Cardinal Peter K. Turkson, in a recent address to French businesspeople, spoke about integrating faith and work. In its exercise of business, therefore, humanity would become a ‘rock’ that sustains creation through the practice of love and justice. Continue Reading...
April 04, 2012

Jimmy Carter, Liberation Theologian

I came across this news story via Catholic World News. And this intriguing passage about President Carter’s disagreements with Pope John Paul II: Carter wrote that he exchanged harsh words with the late Pope John Paul II during a state visit over what Carter classified as the Pope’s “perpetuation of the subservience of women.” Continue Reading...
March 28, 2012

Counterpoint: The ‘Right to Water’ is not ‘Free Water for All’

“Does the Vatican think water should be ‘free’?” asked Kishore Jayabalan in his post examining the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace’s latest document on water. Although he is now the director of Istituto Acton, the Acton Institute’s Rome office, Jayabalan formerly worked for the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace as the lead policy analyst on sustainable development and arms control. Continue Reading...
March 27, 2012

Does the Vatican think water should be ‘free’?

Not surprisingly, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (PCJP)’s latest document on water has garnered scant media attention. Why, after all, would journalists, already notorious for their professional Attention Deficit Disorder and dislike of abstract disputation, report on something named “Water: An Essential Element of Life,” especially when it is nothing more than an update of a document originally released in 2003, and then updated in 2006 and 2009, with the exact same titles? Continue Reading...
March 14, 2012

Integral Human Development

The Journal of Markets & Morality is planning a theme issue for the Spring of 2013: “Integral Human Development,” i.e. the synthesis of human freedom and responsibility necessary for the material and spiritual enrichment of human life. Continue Reading...