(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

BY ZACH TOOMBS

The now-worldwide Occupy Wall Street movement found an unlikely ally this week in the Catholic Church. MSNBC reports on Vatican City’s new plan for a world economic authority.

“The Occupy Wall Street movement is about to have a powerful friend who has some powerful friends above himself. That being Pope Benedict. Over the last few years, the pope has talked about the worsening global financial crisis, and tomorrow the Vatican will issue a statement of support of those same goals pushed by the Occupy movement. The church will call for reform, stronger regulations and a greater focus on people over profits.”

CNN reports that the Vatican’s 18-page proposal focuses on three main roles a new economic order would fill.

“For the first time, the Vatican has outlined what it sees as a moral fix for the problem of poverty: a proposal to create a new financial authority; including a global central bank and a new tax on global financial transactions.
THOMAS REESE: “Globalization has made us all in the same boat, and we’re either going to sink together, or we’re going to prosper together.”

But the thought of more regulation, especially coming from a worldwide organization, has plenty of U.S. pundits up in arms. A columnist for TIME Magazine writes:

“Those politicians who think the Dodd-Frank law went too far in attempting to reform Wall Street will likely need smelling salts after taking a look at a proposal for reforming the global financial system that was released by the Vatican ... Calling into question the entire foundation of neo-liberal economics and proposing one world financial order? You never know what those radicals over at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace will come up with next.”

And a debate on FOX Business on Tuesday shows both sides of the argument.

“Our viewers are absolutely fed up with having us, in America, with having our money effected by the failure of Europe institutions. Why on Earth are we dragged down by a country like Greece?”

“We have to recognize that we are a global community, and one person’s actions affects the others’.”

“Utopian dreaming – that’s my last word.”

“No, it’s reality. It’s reality.”

According to TIME, the timing of this new proposal from the Vatican is meant to precede the G-20 Summit set for the first week of Novemeber in France.