DRAFT

This is a draft and is not to be reproduced or quoted without the author’s explicit permission. For the first time in history, human beings are able to quickly, accurately and efficiently communicate, trade and interact on a global scale. What makes this phenomenon possible are the rapid advances in technology (especially the computer and digitization), communication (such as, fiber optic cables, satellites and the internet) and transportation witnessed in the last century. With these advances, geography, as a social barrier, has been transcended and many aspects of social life (conversing, buying, selling, art, literature, music, philosophy, religion, politics, economics etc.) are carried out on a global scale. Frequently, the phenomenon is called globalization. After defining globalization and describing the reality of economic globalization, this essay will historically trace how the Roman Catholic Church has accommodated/adapted her economic teaching to reflect the emerging global economy (through linguistic changes and repeated calls for economic regulation) and conclude by positing a reformulated and explicitly global, Roman Catholic economic ethic based on a stronger emphasis of philosophical anthropology and the ordo caritatis. The world’s social-political-economic landscape ha