[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 27 (Friday, March 11, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL NOVAK

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, it is with great pleasure that I rise 
today to recognize the achievements of one of America's most brilliant 
theologians, Michael Novak. On Tuesday of this week, Mr. Novak was 
awarded the 1994 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, an award 
comparable to the Nobel Prize.
  Now a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, he has long 
communicated the idea that free market capitalism is of greater 
economic benefit to the world's poor than is the socialist system.
  His work has received worldwide praise, and now recognition.
  Mr. President, at this time I ask that my statement and the following 
article from this past Wednesday's New York Times be submitted into the 
Record.

                [From the New York Times, Mar. 9, 1994]

           $1 Million Religion Prize for Capitalism Defender

                          (By Peter Steinfels)

       Michael Novak, a scholar known for formulating a 
     theological defense of capitalism, has won a prize of nearly 
     $1 million established by one of capitalism's most successful 
     practitioners.
       Mr. Novak, whose religious arguments linking democracy and 
     capitalism influenced opinion in Eastern Europe and are 
     echoed in Pope John Paul II's writings, was named the winner 
     yesterday of the 1994 Templeton Prize for Progress in 
     Religion.
       The prize, created 22 years ago by Sir John M. Templeton, 
     an American-born British subject who is widely considered the 
     dean of global investing, honors a person judged to have 
     advanced the world's understanding of religion. Valued at 
     K650,000--$968,500 at yesterday's exchange rate--the prize 
     will be awarded by Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace on May 
     4.
       Sir John, who is active in the Presbyterian church, 
     stipulated that the prize money should always surpass that of 
     the Nobel Prizes, which he felt had overlooked religion. He 
     sold his money management firm, Templeton, Galbraith & 
     Hansberger, for $913 million in 1992 and now, at the age of 
     81, lives in the Bahamas.
       Previous winners include Mother Teresa and the Rev. Billy 
     Graham. Last year's winner was Charles W. Colson, the former 
     special counsel to President Richard M. Nixon who established 
     a prison ministry after serving seven months for his role in 
     the Watergate cover-up.
       Mr. Novak, a 60-year-old Roman Catholic who once studied 
     for the priesthood, was a proponent of many of the changes in 
     Catholic teachings and practices introduced by the Second 
     Vatican council, which he covered on special assignment for 
     Time magazine in 1963. He was an outspoken opponent of the 
     war in Vietnam while teaching religious studies at Stanford 
     University in the mid-1960's.
       In the 1970's, when he also taught at the State University 
     of New York at Old Westbury, L.I., and at Syracuse 
     University, Mr. Novak moved into the ranks of neoconservative 
     thinkers and politicians. In 1978, he became a resident 
     scholar in religion and public policy at the conservative 
     American Enterprise Institute in Washington.
       Encountering opposition to capitalism in politically active 
     religious circles, Mr. Novak in 1982 wrote ``The Spirit of 
     Democratic Capitalism'' (Simon & Schuster) arguing that 
     capitalism and democracy were mutually supportive embodiments 
     of Christian principles. He also wrote several books 
     criticizing the socialist elements in Latin American 
     liberation theology.
       Drawing bitter criticism from many of his former liberal 
     allies in the church, Mr. Novak also organized opposition to 
     the American Catholic bishops' pastoral letters on nuclear 
     weapons and on the economy in the mid-1980's. At a news 
     conference yesterday in Manhattan, he said he had largely 
     agreed with the bishops' final versions of those documents.
       In her memoirs, Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime 
     Minister, said Mr. Novak's writings had influenced her views 
     on ``quality of life'' issues. Lady Thatcher served on the 
     nine-member panel of judges who awarded the prize. The panel 
     also included James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, 
     and George Gallup Jr., the pollster.
       Mr. Novak said he would use much of the prize money to 
     finance scholarships at colleges where he studied and to 
     support Crisis, the conservative Catholic monthly that he 
     edits.
       Asked about the New Testament's warnings against riches, 
     Mr. Novak replied, ``The more you have, the stricter your 
     judgment will be, and the more you are responsible for.''
       Sir John, who attended the news conference, added, ``I just 
     hope we haven't kept Michael out of the kingdom of heaven.''

                          ____________________