Pope To Propose International Agreement on Globalisation

TIMES ONLINE: Pope Benedict XVI will sign his new encyclical on the global economy, poverty and the worldwide financial crisis on Monday but the text is unlikely to be published for another week, on the eve of the G8 summit at L'Aquila, according to Italian reports.

...The Pope recently said the document, Caritas in veritate (Charity in Truth), would outline the ethical values that the faithful must "tirelessly defend" to ensure "true freedom and solidarity". He said the global downturn demonstrated the need to "rethink economic and financial paradigms that have been dominant in recent years."

The encyclical - Benedict's third as pontiff - analyses the destructive effect on society of the pursuit of commercial or private interests without "social responsibility" or "conscience and honesty". It proposes an international agreement on globalisation based on "the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity" and "the values of charity and truth".