The document of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace is ponderously titled – «Towards reforming the international financial and monetary system in the context of global public authority» -  and its remarks were the most specific. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace calls for the advent of a new world centered on a universal political authority. The idea is not unprecedented – it was previously evoked in the 1963 encyclical Pacem in Terris of John XXIII. The document also proposed taxation measures on financial transactions (and suggested that revenues could contribute to the creation of a “world reserve fund” to support the economies of countries hit by crisis); forms of recapitalization of banks with public funds that make support conditional on “virtuous” behavior aimed at developing the real economy; more effective management of financial shadow markets that are largely uncontrolled today. Such moves would be designed to make the global economy more responsive to the needs of the person, and – the document says – less «subordinated to the interests of countries that effectively enjoy a position of economic and financial advantage».

The path to the document had been long and transparent. In May, after a media briefing with journalists to announce a conference about the Mater et Magistra, mons. Mario Toso, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, announced the journalist that another media briefing was up to come, and it would have been about a future note for the reform of the monetary system. The Vatican Secretary of State was obviously informed. There had been several sketches of the document, as usual. The first sketch was drawn down by Michel Camdessus, former president of the International Monetary Fund, consultant of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and  part of the French delegation at the last G20 meeting. Then, document passed through several hand, bankers like Antonio Fazio – former governor of the Bank of Italy – and Ignazio Musu – economist and part of the advisory board of the Bank of Italy. The document shields itself with many citations from previous social encyclicals, and actually there is nothing so new.

In the Caritas in Veritate there is also a paragraph – the so-called «world authority paragraph» – in which it is stated that

«in the face of the unrelenting growth of global interdependence, there is a trongly 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. One also senses the urgent need to find innovative ways of implementing the Principle of the responsibility to protect and of giving poorer nations an effective voice in shared decision-making. This seems necessary in order to arrive at a political, juridical and economic order which can increase and give direction to international cooperation for the development of all peoples in solidarity. 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. . . »

Even Caritas in veritate had been sketched by many hands. An encyclical is such an important text – it is addressed to all the men of good will, and it is inspiration and part of the diplomatic work of the Holy See – that everybody would like to stress it to its own part. Among the people that glossed the Caritas in veritate,  there were economist like Stefano Zamagni and Luigino Bruni, but also the then governor of the Bank of Italy Mario Draghi and the then Italian minister of Economy Giulio Tremonti. Even Ettore Gotti Tedeschi had been involved in “glossing” the encyclical. He was still not president of the IOR (Institute for Religious Works), but he was already sure that the economical collapse came from the lack of children. No children, no creativity, no hope for the future, no economy: this simple four-words-speech-scheme is the Gotti Tedeschi’s favorite one.

After the release of the encyclical, there had been a sort of split on how to consider Caritas in veritate. Laissez-faire theorists were critical about some economical analysis, but always underlined how good was the “make more sons” line. Social economy theorists loved more the part that evoked the tunes of Populorum Progressio, the Paul VI social encyclical, in which the Pope claimed that «the new name of peace is development». The fight of interpretations was – and still is – intense. Ettore Gotti Tedeschi was invited to talk to the meeting about Caritas in veritate without either informing  the Pontifical Council Justice and Peace. And the medias were in some way divided between these two lines of the encyclical, and were totally unaware that the truth is in the middle.

The most prophetical part of the encyclical was the so-called “world authority” paragraph. In fact, this has been interpreted by many Catholics a sort of “big leviathan”. But there is a deeper reason why the Holy See has been doing this proposal. And one can find these reason looking back in history to see when this world order had been stated. The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October of 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. The treaties resulted from the big diplomatic congress, thereby initiating a new system of political order in central Europe, later called Westphalian sovereignty, based upon the concept of a sovereign state governed by a sovereign. In the event, the treaties’ regulations became integral to the constitutional law of the Holy Roman Empire. It was there that the Holy See began to the fight not to be ejected from the concert of nations. It was there that the Holy See became to be subjected to the secularizing process. An increasing lack of influence that brought the Vatican State to be attacked and then defeated by national States, and to sign agreements with the States – which are the various Concordats.

Peace of Westphalia is quoted in the last document released by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and it is not a case. In the last years, many have talked about a New World Order. This new world order had been theorized in several think-tanks all over the world – from the Trilateral Commission to Bildeberg Group – and in the mean time finance prevailed on policy. The new world order will be an economic-based one. This seems to be the time for the change to come. So, while the Holy See was going on in signing Concordats with the national States, the world governance got always more supranational. The scenario is similar to the one of the Peace of Westphalia times. Within the Holy See, many are aware of the risk for the Church – and religions as well – to be put aside. This is the sense of the call for common rules and a world authority with universal competences.

When the document of Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace had been released, there had been a slight disagreement within the Vatican Curia. Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, president of the IOR, complained to have not been even consulted during the preparation of the document. No consulation was the fact that when one then delves into the analyses and specific proposals, it is also stunning how strong the divergence is between what is written in the document of the pontifical council for justice and peace and what has been maintained for some time in the financial commentaries published in L’Osservatore Romano by Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. For example, not even one line in the document attributes the global economic and financial crisis to the collapse in the birth rate and to the resulting higher and higher costs of population aging.

 Gotti Tedeschi did not remain silent. On November 4  L’Osservatore Romano published an editorial by him that reads like a complete repudiation of the document of the Pontifical Council for justice and Peace. Gotti Tedeschi wrote that «the true origins of the collapse of birthrates and the consequences of the increase of taxes on the GDP to absorb the costs of the ageing of the population were wrongly interpreted. The effects of the decisions made to compensate for these phenomena were underestimated, especially with the de-localization of production and consumer debt». For the president of IOR,  «to deflate the total debt – public, banking, business and family – and bring it back to pre-crisis levels, that is, to around 40% less, it is possible, though not advisable, to cancel a part of the debt with a type of “preventive agreement,” where creditors are paid at 60%».

More. Someone inside the Roman Curia – sources whisper that it was Gotti Tedeschi himself, very active indeed (he also wrote down an article for the Italian magazine Tempi) – complained about the document with the cardinal Bertone, secretary of State. Medias report that Bertone complained to have not been even informed by document. It was not true, since he had been constantly kept informed of the document. And this is what he said, sources from inside the Curia report. Probably, the truth is in the middle: pressed by the vain discontents memeber of the Curia that were protesting, Bertone said that he knew about the document, not about his contents, and he managed a summit to solve the question. The news about a summit convened in the Secretariat of State on November, 4^th leaked to the press. The conclusion of the summit was that this binding order would be transmitted to all of the offices of the curia: from that point on, nothing in writing would be released unless it had been inspected and authorized by the Secretariat of State.

This is how the red alarm for the new document of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has been defused. In the mean time, very few know about the international activities of the Holy See, and the financial transparency brought on with the establishment of the Authority for Financial Information can have some contraindication. The game is on the international impact of the Holy See. The same game the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace played by asking for an World Authority with Universal Competences. Since the world is now globally ruled, the Holy See want to give is contribution to write common rules. In order these common rules will be for the common good of humanity, and not just for the good of few. Will this commitment be consumed in the bonfire of vanities?

Madrid. One million and a half of young people gather together to meet with the Pope. Can it be considered the triumph of Catholicism in Spain? Zapatero – a self confessed agnostic – profoundly changed the mood of Spain during the eight years of his administration. Quick divorce, gay marriages, decriminalization of abortion, no limits in-vitro fertilization had been some of the main points of Zapatero’s policy. Spain went under an unprecedented laicization. Religions had to be out of the public life, and that is why a few young people began the so-called war of chapels, making irruption in the University Chapels at the moment of the consecration.

In fact, Spain is still a profoundly Catholic country. The evangelical movement – as John Allen put it – is still strong there. Catholic religion is part of the Spanish history, and nobody seems to forget it when the pasos pass through the Spanish towns during the Good Friday, or in occasions of the several and Catholic feasts that held in Spain. On the other hand, there is a hard challenge to face for the Spanish Church: to encourage the faith and strengthen it, because the agnostic, atheistic, anti-Catholic movements are becoming strong and well organized.

During the first day of the Wyd, a group of indignados attacked a procession of faithful: eight of them had been arrested. Who are the indignados? The movement was born after an hatred anti-piracy legislation of Zapatero administration. The legislation was just a symbol: there is the 40 per cent young unemployment in Spain, and the economic crisis radically changed young expectation for the future. This generation view in the free download one of the last rights they can have, when they usually are obliged to accept a job under the level of their skill or – even worse – not to work at all. At the beginning, indignados did not have a manifesto. When the manifesto arrived, it was evident to many that indignados movement had been infiltrated by ideas different from the original ones. Indignados manifesto was coloured with anticlericalism, seeing the Church as one of the powers that suffocate the young generation. Now that the national elections are up to come, there is a movement of young people that does not want to stay with the Partido Popular, nor with the Partido Socialista, and that refuses the Church.

The news is that Rodriguez Zapatero, head of the Partido Socialista and premier until November, 20^th, tried to fight his fall of prestige by meeting the Pope. No surprise for the official meeting, which is part of the duties and the ceremonial of the head of a National Government. It was more surprising that he was present at the arrival of the Pope, even if it would not have to be there. During the flight, the Pope affirmed that  «the economy cannot function as a self-regulated economy. Man must be at the economy’s centre, which is not profit but solidarity».

When Zapatero and the Pope officially met, they talked about economy again. There were no tensions  during the meeting. Actually, the first four years of the Zapatero administration were indeed tense ones for Church-state relations. The prime minister’s social reform agenda inevitably angered the Church. The country’s bishops, led by  Cardinal José María Rouco Varela, responded with verbal broadsides, such as accusing the government of allowing «the elimination of half a million children» with the abortion reform. They also took the extraordinary step of barging further into the political arena by leading mass marches against gay marriage.

But in the last three or four years, relations have improved. The government has not followed through on electoral promises such as a euthanasia law and a reform of the religious freedom law (which, for example, means that those being sworn into public office do so in front of a crucifix). The «dignified death» bill which has replaced the euthanasia proposal has still riled the bishops, but the government reportedly pulled back from presenting the latter due to pressure from the Church. Abandoning the religious freedom law may be more due to other priorities, such as the economy, and that’s why Zapatero withdrew it after meeting with Benedict XVI. Is the Catholic Spain going to resurge?

The secularization movement that shaked all of Europe now is seeming to show its limit. In Hungary, a party of Catholic inspiration won the election and promoted a new Constitution founded on Christian roots. In Finland, Timo Soini, a Catholic nationalist leader, gained the 12 percent of the poll in Finland. Where the secularization was more aggressive, there a Catholic spirit as able to survive.

It happened in Madrid. In a country shocked by the economic crisis, Catholic resisted just like the Escorial, the big-fortress monastery where the Pope held two speeches, to the young members of religious orders and to the young Catholic teachers. El Escorial is a symbolic place for Spain. There King Charles V died. He retired  at El Escorial after having reigned and made of Spain the biggest kingdom in the world.

The last big Catholic king decided to leave is crown, and to pray the rest of his life. Many think of him as a saint. A few remember that he did reinforce his kingdom, but – in order to do it – he had to make wars and securing loans from several banks. When he left his crown, the kingdom was already in bankrupt. So, he decided to retire, and to pray.

Zapatero is now going to retire, and probably he will not go to pray. Many catholics see in its failure the symbol of what will be of the humanity if the values are exchanged with the profits, and when the individual rights become more important than the right of a community. The message the Pope gave to the young people is to «say ‘yes’ to God, build on the rock, and do not listen to promises of artificial and passing paradises». More than one million and a half people was ready to listen to it. The Christianity – evangelical, strong in its identity, brought on from the bottom – is probably now. Madrid signed in some way the evangelical turn of the Church. Is it the beginning of the resurgence of religion in Europe?