Financial Crisis: Finding a Moral Response

'It is the Church's duty to denounce the fundamental errors that have now been revealed in the collapse of the major American banks' Pope to the Priests of Rome.

ROMA (Chiesa) - He was the first to be surprised - Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, 63, a fervent Catholic with five children, professor of economics at the Catholic University of Milan and president in Italy of Banco Santander, one of the largest banks in the world: "When I came up with the idea for a 'good bank' and wrote about it in 'L'Osservatore Romano', I never imagined that it would be picked up by the head of the World Bank, and even by English prime minister Gordon Brown."

But that's exactly what happened. The idea that Gotti Tedeschi proposed last January 30 on the front page of the newspaper of the Holy See was forcefully echoed, in the February 19 issue of the same newspaper, by British prime minister Brown, who that same day was received by Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

It is a simple but revolutionary idea, proposed to the rich countries that are now in financial disarray: to invest a gigantic sum of money, not at home, but on behalf of poor countries, so that these may become the leaders of an economic boom to their own advantage and that of all. Over the span of a few decades, it would be the growth of poor countries that would repay the debt contracted by the rich countries, producing more wealth and prosperity.

The idea gradually took shape in "L'Osservatore Romano": first with the article by Gotti Tedeschi, then with the surprising follow-up from Brown, and then with another article by the Italian economist and banker, who for the past year has been the economics commentator for the pope's newspaper.

An important test of the future of this project will be the next G20, the summit of the twenty largest and richest countries in the world, scheduled for April 2.But something important is already happening. There is a growing and increasingly authoritative recognition of the fact that the economy cannot be driven by selfish interests alone - with the devastation that today is plain for all to see - but must also draw upon ethics. "Inspired by grace," Gotti Tedeschi says.

In his view, Brown has received this inspiration, "with the humility of great men." Gotti Tedeschi is confident that the British prime minister will be listened to by the other powers that be: "And so I urge that Gordon Brown be nominated for the Nobel prize in economics."

An evidence of the attention to the connection between economics and ethics came recently from Italian economy minister Giulio Tremonti. Last summer, he published a book entitled "La paura e la speranza [Fear and hope]," which ended up on Benedict XVI's desk. The pope also received the minister for a private audience. And Tremonti, inaugurating the new academic year at the Catholic University of Milan last November 19, cited a 1985 conference on ethics and economics given by Ratzinger, crediting him with prophesying long in advance, at that conference, the current global disaster. "What is coming true today," Tremonti said, "is the prediction according to which the decline of discipline in the economy, a discipline based on a strong ethical and religious order, would bring the laws of the market to collapse."

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At the end of his inaugural address, Tremonti cited Plato and invoked as "the only currency of value" that of an intelligence "guided by God." It will be interesting to see how all of this will be expressed in the encyclical on social doctrine, the publication of which has been awaited for some time. Its first words in Latin have been released in advance: "Caritas in veritate."

Meanwhile, at an open question and answer session with the priests of Rome on the morning of Thursday, February 26, Benedict XVI said this about the current global financial crisis:

"It is the Church's duty to denounce the fundamental errors that have now been revealed in the collapse of the major American banks. Human greed is a form of idolatry that is against the true God, and is a falsification of the image of God with another god, Mammon.

"We must denounce this courageously, but also concretely, because grand moralizations are not helpful if they are not supported by a familiarity with reality, which helps us to understand what can be done concretely.

"The Church has never simply denounced evils, it also shows the paths that lead to justice, to charity, to the conversion of hearts. In the economy as well, justice is established only if there are just persons. And these persons are assembled through the conversion of hearts."

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Chiesa is a wonderful source on all things Catholic in Europe. It is skillfully edited by Sandro Magister. SANDRO MAGISTER was born on the feast of the Guardian Angels in 1943, in the town of Busto Arsizio in the archdiocese of Milan. The following day he was baptized into the Catholic Church. His wife’s name is Anna, and he has two daughters, Sara and Marta. He lives in Rome.