Latest news with #AugustinianOrder
Euronews
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Euronews
Al Pacino becomes first Hollywood celebrity to meet Pope Leo XIV
Al Pacino has become the first major Hollywood celebrity to have an official audience with the newly elected pope, Pope Leo XIV. The star of The Godfather and Serpico met the pontiff at the Vatican on Monday. The veteran actor, 85, is currently in Italy shooting Maserati: The Brothers, a biopic starring co-stars Anthony Hopkins, Andy Garcia and Jessica Alba, about the automobile moguls who shaped the luxury sports car industry. 'We are honored to announce that this morning His Holiness Pope Leo XIV received in a private audience at the Holy See a delegation from the film 'Maserati: The Brothers,' including Oscar winner actor Al Pacino and the film's producer Andrea Iervolino,' Iervolino said in a statement. 'The meeting was a moment of profound spiritual and cultural inspiration, centered around shared values that lie at the heart of both the Catholic Church and the film: family unity, love, compassion and the importance of contributing to the common good. The statement continued: 'These values, which Pope Leo XIV has consistently emphasized in his recent messages to the world, resonate deeply with the story of the Maserati brothers: a family whose legacy was built not only on innovation and excellence but on profound mutual respect, solidarity and a shared vision.' Pope Leo XIV was elected last month and is the first Pontiff from the United States of America. He is also the first member of the Augustinian Order to be Pope.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Can an American pope apply US-style fundraising and standards to fix troubled Vatican finances?
VATICAN CITY (AP) — As a bishop in Peru, Robert Prevost was often on the lookout for used cars that he could buy cheap and fix up himself for use in parishes around his diocese. With cars that were really broken down, he'd watch YouTube videos to learn how to fix them. That kind of make-do-with-less, fix-it-yourself mentality could serve Pope Leo XIV well as he addresses one of the greatest challenges facing him as pope: The Holy See's chronic, 50 million to 60 million euro ($57-68 million) structural deficit, 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall and declining donations that together pose something of an existential threat to the central government of the 1.4-billion strong Catholic Church. As a Chicago-born math major, canon lawyer and two-time superior of his global Augustinian religious order, the 69-year-old pope presumably can read a balance sheet and make sense of the Vatican's complicated finances, which have long been mired in scandal. Whether he can change the financial culture of the Holy See, consolidate reforms Pope Francis started and convince donors that their money is going to good use is another matter. Leo already has one thing going for him: his American-ness. U.S. donors have long been the economic life support system of the Holy See, financing everything from papal charity projects abroad to restorations of St. Peter's Basilica at home. Leo's election as the first American pope has sent a jolt of excitement through U.S. Catholics, some of whom had soured on donating to the Vatican after years of unrelenting stories of mismanagement, corruption and scandal, according to interviews with top Catholic fundraisers, philanthropists and church management experts. 'I think the election of an American is going to give greater confidence that any money given is going to be cared for by American principles, especially of stewardship and transparency,' said the Rev. Roger Landry, director of the Vatican's main missionary fundraising operation in the U.S., the Pontifical Mission Societies. 'So there will be great hope that American generosity is first going to be appreciated and then secondly is going to be well handled,' he said. 'That hasn't always been the circumstance, especially lately.' Reforms and unfinished business Pope Francis was elected in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Vatican's opaque finances and made progress during his 12-year pontificate, mostly on the regulatory front. With help from the late Australian Cardinal George Pell, Francis created an economy ministry and council made up of clergy and lay experts to supervise Vatican finances, and he wrestled the Italian-dominated bureaucracy into conforming to international accounting and budgetary standards. He authorized a landmark, if deeply problematic, corruption trial over a botched London property investment that convicted a once-powerful Italian cardinal. And he punished the Vatican's Secretariat of State that had allowed the London deal to go through by stripping it of its ability to manage its own assets. But Francis left unfinished business and his overall record, at least according to some in the donor community, is less than positive. Critics cite Pell's frustrated reform efforts and the firing of the Holy See's first-ever auditor general, who says he was ousted because he had uncovered too much financial wrongdoing. Despite imposing years of belt-tightening and hiring freezes, Francis left the Vatican in somewhat dire financial straits: The main stopgap bucket of money that funds budgetary shortfalls, known as the Peter's Pence, is nearly exhausted, officials say. The 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall that Pell warned about a decade ago remains unaddressed, though Francis had planned reforms. And the structural deficit continues, with the Holy See logging an 83.5 million euro ($95 million) deficit in 2023, according to its latest financial report. As Francis' health worsened, there were signs that his efforts to reform the Vatican's medieval financial culture hadn't really stuck, either. The very same Secretariat of State that Francis had punished for losing tens of millions of euros in the scandalous London property deal somehow ended up heading up a new papal fundraising commission that was announced while Francis was in the hospital. According to its founding charter and statutes, the commission is led by the Secretariat of State's assessor, is composed entirely of Italian Vatican officials with no professional fundraising expertise and has no required external financial oversight. To some Vatican watchers, the commission smacks of the Italian-led Secretariat of State taking advantage of a sick pope to announce a new flow of unchecked donations into its coffers after its 600 million euro ($684 million) sovereign wealth fund was taken away and given to another office to manage as punishment for the London fiasco. 'There are no Americans on the commission. I think it would be good if there were representatives of Europe and Asia and Africa and the United States on the commission,' said Ward Fitzgerald, president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation. It is made up of wealthy American Catholics that since 1990 has provided over $250 million (219 million euros) in grants and scholarships to the pope's global charitable initiatives. Fitzgerald, who spent his career in real estate private equity, said American donors — especially the younger generation — expect transparency and accountability from recipients of their money, and know they can find non-Vatican Catholic charities that meet those expectations. 'We would expect transparency before we would start to solve the problem,' he said. That said, Fitzgerald said he hadn't seen any significant let-up in donor willingness to fund the Papal Foundation's project-specific donations during the Francis pontificate. Indeed, U.S. donations to the Vatican overall have remained more or less consistent even as other countries' offerings declined, with U.S. bishops and individual Catholics contributing more than any other country in the two main channels to donate to papal causes. A head for numbers and background fundraising Francis moved Prevost to take over the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014. Residents and fellow priests say he consistently rallied funds, food and other life-saving goods for the neediest — experience that suggests he knows well how to raise money when times are tight and how to spend wisely. He bolstered the local Caritas charity in Chiclayo, with parishes creating food banks that worked with local businesses to distribute donated food, said the Rev. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, a diocesan spokesperson. In 2019, Prevost inaugurated a shelter on the outskirts of Chiclayo, Villa San Vicente de Paul, to house desperate Venezuelan migrants who had fled their country's economic crisis. The migrants remember him still, not only for helping give them and their children shelter, but for bringing live chickens obtained from a donor. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Prevost launched a campaign to raise funds to build two oxygen plants to provide hard-hit residents with life-saving oxygen. In 2023, when massive rains flooded the region, he personally brought food to the flood-struck zone. Within hours of his May 8 election, videos went viral on social media of Prevost, wearing rubber boots and standing in a flooded street, pitching a solidarity campaign, 'Peru Give a Hand,' to raise money for flood victims. The Rev. Jorge Millán, who lived with Prevost and eight other priests for nearly a decade in Chiclayo, said he had a 'mathematical' mentality and knew how to get the job done. Prevost would always be on the lookout for used cars to buy for use around the diocese, Millán said, noting that the bishop often had to drive long distances to reach all of his flock or get to Lima, the capital. Prevost liked to fix them up himself, and if he didn't know what to do, 'he'd look up solutions on YouTube and very often he'd find them,' Millán told The Associated Press. Before going to Peru, Prevost served two terms as prior general, or superior, of the global Augustinian order. While the order's local provinces are financially independent, Prevost was responsible for reviewing their balance sheets and oversaw the budgeting and investment strategy of the order's headquarters in Rome, said the Rev. Franz Klein, the order's Rome-based economist who worked with Prevost. The Augustinian campus sits on prime real estate just outside St. Peter's Square and supplements revenue by renting out its picturesque terrace to media organizations (including the AP) for major Vatican events, including the conclave that elected Leo pope. But even Prevost saw the need for better fundraising, especially to help out poorer provinces. Toward the end of his 12-year term and with his support, a committee proposed creation of a foundation, Augustinians in the World. At the end of 2023, it had 994,000 euros ($1.13 million) in assets and was helping fund self-sustaining projects across Africa, including a center to rehabilitate former child soldiers in Congo. 'He has a very good interest and also a very good feeling for numbers,' Klein said. 'I have no worry about the finances of the Vatican in these years because he is very, very clever.' ___ Franklin Briceño contributed from Lima, Peru. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Independent
07-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Can an American pope apply US-style fundraising and standards to fix troubled Vatican finances?
As a bishop in Peru, Robert Prevost was often on the lookout for used cars that he could buy cheap and fix up himself for use in parishes around his diocese. With cars that were really broken down, he'd watch YouTube videos to learn how to fix them. That kind of make-do-with-less, fix-it-yourself mentality could serve Pope Leo XIV well as he addresses one of the greatest challenges facing him as pope: The Holy See's chronic, 50 million to 60 million euro ($57-68 million) structural deficit, 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall and declining donations that together pose something of an existential threat to the central government of the 1.4-billion strong Catholic Church. As a Chicago-born math major, canon lawyer and two-time superior of his global Augustinian religious order, the 69-year-old pope presumably can read a balance sheet and make sense of the Vatican's complicated finances, which have long been mired in scandal. Whether he can change the financial culture of the Holy See, consolidate reforms Pope Francis started and convince donors that their money is going to good use is another matter. Leo already has one thing going for him: his American-ness. U.S. donors have long been the economic life support system of the Holy See, financing everything from papal charity projects abroad to restorations of St. Peter's Basilica at home. Leo's election as the first American pope has sent a jolt of excitement through U.S. Catholics, some of whom had soured on donating to the Vatican after years of unrelenting stories of mismanagement, corruption and scandal, according to interviews with top Catholic fundraisers, philanthropists and church management experts. 'I think the election of an American is going to give greater confidence that any money given is going to be cared for by American principles, especially of stewardship and transparency,' said the Rev. Roger Landry, director of the Vatican's main missionary fundraising operation in the U.S., the Pontifical Mission Societies. 'So there will be great hope that American generosity is first going to be appreciated and then secondly is going to be well handled,' he said. 'That hasn't always been the circumstance, especially lately.' Reforms and unfinished business Pope Francis was elected in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Vatican's opaque finances and made progress during his 12-year pontificate, mostly on the regulatory front. With help from the late Australian Cardinal George Pell, Francis created an economy ministry and council made up of clergy and lay experts to supervise Vatican finances, and he wrestled the Italian-dominated bureaucracy into conforming to international accounting and budgetary standards. He authorized a landmark, if deeply problematic, corruption trial over a botched London property investment that convicted a once-powerful Italian cardinal. And he punished the Vatican's Secretariat of State that had allowed the London deal to go through by stripping it of its ability to manage its own assets. But Francis left unfinished business and his overall record, at least according to some in the donor community, is less than positive. Critics cite Pell's frustrated reform efforts and the firing of the Holy See's first-ever auditor general, who says he was ousted because he had uncovered too much financial wrongdoing. Despite imposing years of belt-tightening and hiring freezes, Francis left the Vatican in somewhat dire financial straits: The main stopgap bucket of money that funds budgetary shortfalls, known as the Peter's Pence, is nearly exhausted, officials say. The 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall that Pell warned about a decade ago remains unaddressed, though Francis had planned reforms. And the structural deficit continues, with the Holy See logging an 83.5 million euro ($95 million) deficit in 2023, according to its latest financial report. As Francis' health worsened, there were signs that his efforts to reform the Vatican's medieval financial culture hadn't really stuck, either. The very same Secretariat of State that Francis had punished for losing tens of millions of euros in the scandalous London property deal somehow ended up heading up a new papal fundraising commission that was announced while Francis was in the hospital. According to its founding charter and statutes, the commission is led by the Secretariat of State's assessor, is composed entirely of Italian Vatican officials with no professional fundraising expertise and has no required external financial oversight. To some Vatican watchers, the commission smacks of the Italian-led Secretariat of State taking advantage of a sick pope to announce a new flow of unchecked donations into its coffers after its 600 million euro ($684 million) sovereign wealth fund was taken away and given to another office to manage as punishment for the London fiasco. 'There are no Americans on the commission. I think it would be good if there were representatives of Europe and Asia and Africa and the United States on the commission,' said Ward Fitzgerald, president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation. It is made up of wealthy American Catholics that since 1990 has provided over $250 million (219 million euros) in grants and scholarships to the pope's global charitable initiatives. Fitzgerald, who spent his career in real estate private equity, said American donors — especially the younger generation — expect transparency and accountability from recipients of their money, and know they can find non-Vatican Catholic charities that meet those expectations. 'We would expect transparency before we would start to solve the problem,' he said. That said, Fitzgerald said he hadn't seen any significant let-up in donor willingness to fund the Papal Foundation's project-specific donations during the Francis pontificate. Indeed, U.S. donations to the Vatican overall have remained more or less consistent even as other countries' offerings declined, with U.S. bishops and individual Catholics contributing more than any other country in the two main channels to donate to papal causes. A head for numbers and background fundraising Francis moved Prevost to take over the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014. Residents and fellow priests say he consistently rallied funds, food and other life-saving goods for the neediest — experience that suggests he knows well how to raise money when times are tight and how to spend wisely. He bolstered the local Caritas charity in Chiclayo, with parishes creating food banks that worked with local businesses to distribute donated food, said the Rev. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, a diocesan spokesperson. In 2019, Prevost inaugurated a shelter on the outskirts of Chiclayo, Villa San Vicente de Paul, to house desperate Venezuelan migrants who had fled their country's economic crisis. The migrants remember him still, not only for helping give them and their children shelter, but for bringing live chickens obtained from a donor. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Prevost launched a campaign to raise funds to build two oxygen plants to provide hard-hit residents with life-saving oxygen. In 2023, when massive rains flooded the region, he personally brought food to the flood-struck zone. Within hours of his May 8 election, videos went viral on social media of Prevost, wearing rubber boots and standing in a flooded street, pitching a solidarity campaign, 'Peru Give a Hand,' to raise money for flood victims. The Rev. Jorge Millán, who lived with Prevost and eight other priests for nearly a decade in Chiclayo, said he had a 'mathematical' mentality and knew how to get the job done. Prevost would always be on the lookout for used cars to buy for use around the diocese, Millán said, noting that the bishop often had to drive long distances to reach all of his flock or get to Lima, the capital. Prevost liked to fix them up himself, and if he didn't know what to do, 'he'd look up solutions on YouTube and very often he'd find them,' Millán told The Associated Press. Before going to Peru, Prevost served two terms as prior general, or superior, of the global Augustinian order. While the order's local provinces are financially independent, Prevost was responsible for reviewing their balance sheets and oversaw the budgeting and investment strategy of the order's headquarters in Rome, said the Rev. Franz Klein, the order's Rome-based economist who worked with Prevost. The Augustinian campus sits on prime real estate just outside St. Peter's Square and supplements revenue by renting out its picturesque terrace to media organizations (including the AP) for major Vatican events, including the conclave that elected Leo pope. But even Prevost saw the need for better fundraising, especially to help out poorer provinces. Toward the end of his 12-year term and with his support, a committee proposed creation of a foundation, Augustinians in the World. At the end of 2023, it had 994,000 euros ($1.13 million) in assets and was helping fund self-sustaining projects across Africa, including a center to rehabilitate former child soldiers in Congo. 'He has a very good interest and also a very good feeling for numbers,' Klein said. 'I have no worry about the finances of the Vatican in these years because he is very, very clever.' ___ Franklin Briceño contributed from Lima, Peru. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Much Is Pope Leo XIV's Social Security Check?
Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, is making history as the first American and first Augustinian Pope. His background has already caused plenty of excitement, and lots of questions, including whether or not he gets a Social Security check. Consider This: Read Next: It makes sense to wonder, being as he is, technically, an American citizen. The short answer is no, but the full picture raises some interesting questions about citizenship, religious life and how benefits are determined. There's no direct paycheck waiting for the pope. Instead, the Vatican covers everything including housing, food, healthcare, travel and protection. That's not unique to Pope Leo XIV; it's standard for the job. Technically, he could receive a monthly stipend from the Vatican, rumored to be around $33,000, according to Fortune, but previous popes, like Pope Francis, have turned it down. As a member of the Augustinian Order, which requires a vow of poverty, Pope Leo may follow this precedent. This affects eligibility for Social Security, which depends on having worked in jobs that paid into the system, typically at least 40 credits (around 10 years of work.) As Pope Leo spent much of his adult life in Peru as a missionary and bishop, later taking on high-level roles in Rome, it's unclear whether he worked long enough in the States to qualify. Even if he did, it's hard to imagine him claiming benefits while serving as Pope. Financial support from the Vatican makes Social Security irrelevant in his case. Check Out: Here's where things get trickier. Pope Leo XIV still holds U.S. citizenship. That means he's technically on the hook for U.S. taxes, even while living in Vatican City, as under U.S. law, citizens are taxed on their worldwide income, no matter where they live. But religious vows may change the equation. As a member of a religious order, the Pope may be exempt from some tax requirements — especially if he's assigned any income directly to the order. Still, the IRS could take an interest in the value of non-cash benefits like lodging and transportation, which are often taxable under U.S. rules. There's no public record confirming whether Pope Leo XIV receives a Social Security check, but based on everything known about his life, it's highly unlikely. As a member of a religious order who took a vow of poverty, he likely didn't earn the work credits required for benefits. Even if he technically qualified, any earnings would have been assigned to the order, and his role as Pope comes with full support from the Church. So, while the question is fair to ask, the most reasonable answer is: No, Pope Leo XIV almost certainly isn't getting a check from the Social Security Administration. More From GOBankingRates Warren Buffett: 10 Things Poor People Waste Money On The 5 Car Brands Named the Least Reliable of 2025 This article originally appeared on How Much Is Pope Leo XIV's Social Security Check? Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
30-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Pope Leo XIV And St. Augustine's Contributions To Economics
Pope Leo XIV as missionary, Bishop and Cardinal, followed and lived according to St Augustine's ... More teachings. Picture of Cardinal Prevost by Franco Origlia, St Augustine painting by Botticelli at Ognissanti Church, Tuscany, Italy The election of Pope Leo XIV, a member of the Augustinian Order, has renewed interest in the teachings of St. Augustine (354-430). The Order of St. Augustine (OSA), although not formally founded until 1244, drew its inspiration from the rules for monastic life established by the saint. Augustine's numerous works cover mostly theology, philosophy, biblical exegesis, apologetics, and pastoral matters. In some of his writings, though, we can find principles helpful for business and economics. A recent well-researched article by Matthew Becklo captured what I have also heard from various Augustinians: The Pope is 'a man thoroughly drenched in Augustine's theology and spirituality.' Following St. Augustine, he understands that 'the Church isn't striving to create heaven here on earth; instead, it's striving to draw earth up into heaven.' With this caution in mind, what were St. Augustine's views regarding earthly policy? The State Noted Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) writes in his History of Economic Analysis: 'The accomplished author of De civitate Dei and of the Confessiones—whose very obiter dicta reveal analytic habits of mind— [never] Augustine's view of the state is deeply rooted in his theology, particularly as outlined in his seminal work The City of God (De civitate Dei), where he describes two cities, the City of God and the Earthly City. The first comprises those who live according to God's will and love God above all else. It is eternal and governed by divine justice. Members of the second live according to self-love and seek worldly power. This 'city' is temporal and marked by pride, conflict, and disorder. 'City of God' - from miniature by St. Augustine (translated by Raoul de Presles), 15th century. ... More Upper enclosure represents saint who have been received in heaven. The seven lower enclosures represent those who are preparing themselves, through Christian virtues, for heaven, or who are excluding themselves by committing capital sins. SA: Also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, Bishop of Hippo Regius (present-day Annaba, Algeria). Latin - speaking theologian and philosopher of Roman region, 13 November 354 28 August 430. (Photo by) *** Local Caption *** Augustine's reflections on this Earthly City inform his views on political economy. Dino Bigongiari summarizes Augustine's view of the state thus: '[The immoral] are the ones whose needs have called into the existence the political State. The State is necessary because the people, with all their greed, with all their desires, would otherwise soon have exterminated themselves.' The State helps to maintain relative peace and order in a fallen world, but Augustine never saw it as a means of salvation. Those who follow St. Augustine's writings do not idealize the state. Salvation lies solely with God and the Church; love for God and neighbor must guide political economy. Some brief yet essential passages in Augustine address private property, business profits, economic value, and the relationship between law and justice. To continue, I will briefly elaborate on these ideas. Private Property It makes little sense to speak about private property in the 'City of God,' but here on Earth, we see evils such as conflict, war, and injustice. Private property (as Thomas Aquinas later argued) does not eliminate these evils but does help to mitigate them. Augustine urged detachment from material goods but did not advocate the abolition of private ownership. Private property, he argued, was not divinely ordained but a human construct—created and regulated by humans and the authorities of civil society for practical purposes. 'It is by human right,' he wrote, 'that we say this estate is mine.' God has given the earth to all, but human laws make private ownership useful and tolerable; after original sin, this better accords with humanity's fallen nature. Augustine wrote, for instance, in opposition to a heretical sect called the 'Apostolics': 'The people styled 'apostolic' are those who arrogantly claimed this title for themselves because they refused to admit married folk or property owners to their fellowship, arguing from the model of the many monks and clerics in the Catholic Church. But such people are heretics because they cut themselves off from the Church by alleging that those who, unlike themselves, marry and own property have no hope for salvation" (De haeresibus 40). Closely connected with private property is the reality of business and profit. Business, Augustine wrote, 'is like eating, a morally indifferent act, which can be good or bad depending on the ends and the circumstances." Pedro de Aragón, a 16th-century Augustinian theologian, expounded: 'It is not business, but businessmen, who can do evil.' Augustine stressed that true poverty is in the heart. The Theory of Value There is a chapter in The City of God titled 'The distinctions among created things and their different ranking by the scales of utility and logic.' Augustine's reflections here had an immense influence on later economic thought. In the divine order and in the order of nature, 'living things are ranked above inanimate objects; those which have the power of reproduction, or even the urge toward it, are superior to those who lack that impulse. Among living things, the sentient rank above the insensitive, and animals above trees. Among the sentient, the intelligent take precedence over the unthinking: men over cattle.' But in the earthly order, utility—usefulness for man—is the main determiner of value. In Augustine's words: 'There is another gradation which employs utility as the criterion of value. On this other scale we would put some inanimate things above some creatures of sense…. For instance, would not anyone prefer to have food in his house rather than fleas?' The Late Scholastic notion of just price was also influenced by Augustine's theory of value, which states that the value we place on goods depends on the utility we derive from them. Since our needs and desires are subjective, utility is subjective as well. According to Schumpeter, Aquinas relied on Augustine once again when arguing, 'The just price of things is not fixed with mathematical precision, but depends on a kind of estimate, so that a slight addition or subtraction would not seem to destroy the equality of justice.' Augustine himself acknowledged that it is common to try to buy low and sell high, but emphasized that fairness is the moral course to follow in any transaction. For instance, he speaks favorably of a man who paid the fair price for a book even when the seller was offering it at a lower price. Justice and Law Augustine developed the notion that unjust laws are not true laws: a law, to be such, has to fulfill certain requirements. As we know, few things are more important for an economic system that leads to integral human development than the institutions of justice and the rule of law. 'Without justice,' Augustine wrote, 'there is no realm, nor province, nor city, nor hamlet, nor house, nor family, nor even a band of robbers and highwaymen that can last.' In Book IV of The City of God we read: 'If justice is taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, 'What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst you who do it with a great fleet are styled emperor.'' A dictum of Augustine's was, "That which is not just seems to be no law at all' (On Free Will I.5). To be just, a law must derive from the law of nature in accordance with the rules of reason and usefulness to man. The just law must also be possible in the context of the customs of the country. It must be formulated by the one who governs the community, but it may not exceed his power as a lawgiver. The subjects should bear the burden of the law in accordance with proportional equality. Pope Leo XIV. (Photo by Simone Risoluti - Vatican Media via) Pope Leo ... More XIV's economic teachings will likely follow and provide clarity to traditional Catholic Social Doctrine, but concrete economic policy recommendations will come from economists, not the Church Conclusion: The Church and Economics We should not exaggerate the Pope's influence on today's policy discussions. For instance, despite Pope Francis's more interventionist views, his Argentine compatriots elected Javier Milei, whose free-market views were the most radical in the country's history. During the electoral campaign, one of Milei's mentors even advocated breaking relations with the Vatican. And this was despite the fact that over 60% of the Argentine population is Catholic, compared to approximately 20% in the United States. This may give some indication of what influence we might expect Pope Leo's views to have. The Catholic Church's social doctrine, in which Leo XIV is very well versed, establishes that the concrete economic policy solutions is not a matter of dogma but of prudential decisions. The battle to choose the best policies is a task of the Earthly City. It is a great help, however, to have in the highest recognized moral pulpit someone who recognizes the autonomy of economic science and, at the same time, provides moral direction and clarity. Josh Gregor, jgregor@ contributed to this piece
