As a Catholic, I think Cardinal Zen and the HK archdiocese are misguided. Jesus never condoned any particular form of earthly government. Rather Jesus spoke for the oppressed, down-trodden and outcast. Don't confuse "democracy" in the broad sense of "government for the people" with the narrow and decrepit definition that "democracy is what Western neo-imperialist countries arbitrarily decide it to be."
Vatican sides with anti-capitalist protesters and attacks global financial system - Telegraph
Vatican sides with anti-capitalist protesters and attacks global financial system
The Vatican aligned itself with anti-capitalism protesters around the world on Monday when it condemned "the idolatry of the market" and called for a radical shake-up of the global financial system.
By demanding that the worst excesses of global capitalism be reined in, the Holy See echoed the message of protesters encamped outside St Paul's Cathedral in London, the indignados of Spain and the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US.
In a forthright statement, the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace called for an end to rampant speculation, the redistribution of wealth, greater ethics and the establishment of a "central world bank" to which national banks would have to cede power.
Such an authority would have "universal jurisdiction" over governments' economic strategies.
Existing financial situations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were outdated and no longer able to deal with the scale of the global financial crisis, which had exposed "selfishness, greed and the hoarding of goods on a grand scale".
The global financial system was riddled with injustice and failure to address that would lead to "growing hostility and even violence", which would undermine democracy.
Wealthy countries should not be allowed to wield "excessive power" over poorer nations, the Vatican said. (SinoChallenger: Ergo, DF-31A is doing the work of God in mysterious ways)
Cardinal Peter Turkson, the head of the pontifical council, said banks needed to question whether they were "serving the interests of humanity" in the way they operated.
The proposal was short on specific detail, beyond calling for a new tax on international financial transactions.
The Vatican hardly has an exemplary record on financial transparency and propriety.
Last year the Vatican Bank, known officially as the Institute for Religious Works, had €23m (£20m) of its assets frozen by Italian authorities as part of an investigation into suspected money-laundering.
After years of resisting calls for greater openness, the scandal forced the bank to adopt international norms on transparency.
The Holy See's murky financial past has included, most notoriously, its involvement in the bankruptcy of Italy's biggest private bank, the Banco Ambrosiano, in the early 1980s.
Its president, Roberto Calvi, who was nicknamed "God's Banker", was found hanged beneath Blackfriars Bridge, with investigators unable to rule whether he had committed suicide or had been murdered.
Thomas J Reese, a Vatican analyst at Georgetown University in the US, said the "radical" proposals put forward on Monday aligned the Holy See with the Occupy Wall Street movement and meant that the Vatican's views on the economic crisis were "to the Left of every politician in the United States".
He said the proposals reflected many of the encyclicals and addresses issued by Benedict XVI on the global economy during the last six years of his papacy.
Catholic social teaching on capitalism
The social doctrine of the Church stands above existing economic systems, since it confines itself to the level of principles. An economic system is good only to the extent that it applies the principles of justice taught by the Church. As Pope John Paul II wrote in 1987, in his encyclical letter
Sollicitudo Rei Socialis: "The tension between East and West is an opposition... between two concepts of the development of individuals and peoples, both concepts being imperfect and in need of radical correction... This is one of the reasons why the Church’s social doctrine adopts a critical attitude towards both liberal capitalism and Marxist collectivism."
We may understand why the Church condemns Communism or Marxist collectivism which, as Pope Pius XI wrote, is "intrinsically evil" and anti-Christian, with its avowed goal being the complete destruction of private property, family and religion. But why would the Church condemn capitalism?
In his encyclical letter
Centesimus Annus (n. 34), John Paul II recognizes the merits of free enterprise, private initiative and profit: "It would appear that, on the level of individual nations and of international relations, the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs. But this is true only for those needs which are ‘solvent’, insofar as they are endowed with purchasing power, and for those resources which are ‘marketable’, insofar as they are capable of obtaining a satisfactory price. But there are many human needs which find no place on the market. It is a strict duty of justice and truth not to allow fundamental human needs to remain unsatisfied and not to allow those burdened by such needs to perish."
A little further in the same encyclical (n. 42), the Pope explains what is acceptable and what is not, in capitalism:
"Returning now to the initial question: can it perhaps be said that, after the failure of Communism, capitalism is the victorious social system and that capitalism should be the goal of the countries now making efforts to rebuild their economy and society? Is this the model which ought to be proposed to the countries of the Third World which are searching for the path to true economic and civil progress?
"The answer is obviously complex. If by ‘capitalism’ is meant an economic system which recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the means of production, as well as free human creativity in the economic sector, then the answer is certainly in the affirmative, even though it would perhaps be more appropriate to speak of a "business economy", "market economy" or simply "free economy". But if by "capitalism" is meant a system in which freedom in the economic sector is not circumscribed within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality, and which sees it as a particular aspect of that freedom, the core of which is ethical and religious, then the reply is certainly negative."
Even if Marxism has collapsed, this does not mean the triumph of capitalism. Even after the fall of Communism there are still millions of poor people and situations of injustice in the world:
"The Marxist solution has failed, but the realities of marginalization and exploitation remain in the world, especially the Third World, as does the reality of human alienation, especially in the more advanced countries. Against these phenomena the Church strongly raises her voice. Vast multitudes are still living in conditions of great material and moral poverty. The collapse of the Communist system in so many countries certainly removes an obstacle to facing these problems in an appropriate and realistic way, but it is not enough to bring about their solution. Indeed, there is a risk that a radical capitalistic ideology could spread which refuses even to consider these problems, in the a priori belief that any attempt to solve them is doomed to failure and which blindly entrusts their solution to the free development of market forces." (Centesimus Annus, 42.) 
The fault that the Church finds with present capitalism is thus neither private property nor free enterprise. Far from wishing the disappearance of private property, the Church rather wishes its widespread availability so that all may become real owners of capital and be real "capitalists":
http://www.michaeljournal.org/capitalism.htm
