A senior Vatican official said today that Pope Benedict XVI’s next encyclical could be released in the near future.
Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, confirmed that the Pope has nearly completed his long-awaited social encyclical and hopes to publish it before the end of the year.
Cardinal Martino was speaking at a press conference at the Vatican about the Holy Father’s Message for the World Day of Migrants.
The cardinal also made reference to the current global financial crisis, which he said was brought on by “greed for money or to put it another way, to always have more.”
He noted that the Compendium on the Social Doctrine of the Church, a document published by his council in 2004, says that the market is not only a “factory of profits, but should be monitored.”
Said Cardinal Martino, “The market is not just a place to make profits, but has a capacity to help everyone. Of course there must be profits or the market wouldn’t exist, but making profit is not its sole purpose.”
— Tom McFeely