Knowledge, Openness Key to Future, Historian says

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Jan./Feb. — Historian R. Scott Appleby argues in the influential Foreign Affairs that the Catholic Church must continue to build on the triumphs of Pope John Paul II.

According to Appleby, the Pope’s successor must “embrace science, reject globalization, reach out to the Islamic world — and brush up on economics.” And, he argues, the Church can lead the fight against the commodification of humanity threatened by bioethics and globalization only if it strengthens its support of science to remain fully cognizant of its latest developments and demonstrates that anti-globalism is not only “good religion” but also “sound public policy.”

Appleby suggests that Islam is not only the Church’s great rival but also, potentially, a great ally, considering its opposition to the “privatization of religion and the ‘wall of separation’ between religion and the state and its scorn for ‘irreligious’ or ‘indifferent’ agents of modernization.”

Drucker: Catholic Social Teaching is Sound Capitalism

BUSINESSWORLD, Feb. 8 — Catholic social teaching is not inimical to good business practices. This is the judgment of leading business theorists, including the most celebrated of all, Peter Drucker.

According to Drucker, profit is not capitalism’s primary purpose. Instead, he says, “It must lie in society since the business enterprise is an organ of society. The purpose of business then is ‘to create a customer.’ Profit is simply the cost of staying in business.”

This is remarkably similar to the thoughts expressed by Pope John Paul II in Centesimus Annus, “Profitability is not the only indicator of a firm’s condition. … The purpose of a business firm is to be a community of persons endeavoring to satisfy the basic needs at the service of the whole society.”

John Paul Transcends Ideological Labels

LONDON MAIL ON SUNDAY, Feb. 6 — William Rees-Mogg, former editor of the London Times and one of England’s leading Catholic laymen, has ascribed the success of John Paul II’s papacy to his being outside outmoded labels.

According to Rees-Mogg, the Holy Father “has proved to be more a John Pius than a John Paul.” He has not only recommitted the Church to the “openness” of the Second Vatican Council in taking “the Church out of its Roman ghetto,” but “he is also a Pope of the First Vatican Council of 1870. His faith is in no way ‘modernist.’” This is proved, Rees-Mogg contends, by his adamant opposition to both communism and the excesses of Western capitalism.

Six Africans Appointed to Vatican Congregation

GHANAWEB, Feb. 6 — Pope John Paul II appointed six African bishops to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments Feb. 2. They are Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Ghana; Cardinal Christian Wiyghan Tumi of Cameroon; Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro of Juba, Sudan; Archbishop Jean Marie Untaani of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Archbishop Buti Joseph Tlhagale of Johannesburg, South Africa; and Bishop Tarcisius Ngalalekumtwa of Iringa, Tanzania.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the congregation, is an African, from Nigeria.