"The recent economic statements by Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium“ (EG) read as a call for a “Third Way” economic system ruled by experts and people of good will. Pope Francis writes:
Growth in justice requires more than economic growth, while presupposing such growth: it requires decisions, programs, mechanisms and processes specifically geared to a better distribution of income, the creation of sources of employment and an integral promotion of the poor which goes beyond a simple welfare mentality.
Pope Francis does not call for the socialization of the economic system and he does not point to any totalitarian country as a model.
Nevertheless, as he did not include references to point 42 of John Paul II’s seminal encyclical “Centessimus Annus,” which legitimizes a free-enterprise system based on a rule of law respect of human dignity, and as Francis’ language sometimes seems hostile to free markets, many Christian
economists, and policy pundits, are alarmed. Several have questioned if the Pope has been negatively influenced by the Peronist culture of Argentina. Peronism has, as one of its pillars, an economic system that falls between socialism and capitalism. Juan Domingo Peron was an early champion of the Third Way.
A THIRD WAY economic system? ...And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, Revelation 13:17
One economist who has a strong influence on the Vatican is Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, who some credit for dressing the Third Way economic system in academic garb.
There is no doubt, however, that Stiglitz’s writings had an impact on the second most influential Argentine at the Vatican: Monsignor Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Science. Stiglitz was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in 2003 and had been chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton.
During a program sponsored by the Acton Institute, I had the privilege of sitting next to Sánchez Sorondo and he told me that Stiglitz was indeed his favorite economist. John Allen further added:
Stiglitz argues that the Clinton team made a mistake by accepting that the government should stay out of economic policy, leaving the finance sector to dictate the rules of the game. Stiglitz is thus likely to bolster what has already been the strong line of John Paul II, that public authorities must intervene in economic affairs to ensure that the benefits of globalization work for the common good.
Most of the statements on economics coming out of the Vatican that disturb free-market champions have been preceded by similar statements from noted economists. Such is the case with Francis’ apostolic exhortation." Forbes.com
A THIRD WAY economic system? ...And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, Revelation 13:17