Cardinal Stafford Urges Bankers to Apologize

This economic crisis is rooted in the lack of respect, on the part of the world's leaders, for other people.

ROME (Zenit) - An American cardinal is appealing to bankers to assume responsibility for causing the current global economic downturn, and to apologize for causing it.

American Cardinal James Francis Stafford, the major penitentiary, said this today on Vatican Radio during an interview on the Internal Forum, an annual course on matters of conscience, organized by the Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

"Our world is complex," he said. "Let us think of the economic world, which is now called global: The sins in this economic and global world are different in their complexity and depth from those in the past."

"For example, this economic crisis is rooted in the lack of respect, on the part of the world's leaders, for other people. Bankers must assume moral responsibilities and ask God for forgiveness for these complex sins," he added.

According to Cardinal Stafford, "it is important to discover the theological and pastoral dimension of sin," which "is not an offense against the law but, above all, is an offense against a person, a Divine Person, against the Triune God and against human persons."

"It is important for us, ordained ministers, to rediscover the faith when it points out that Jesus Christ is the Savior, the Redeemer of our sins," he added.

The Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary was created in the 12th century with the essential task of receiving the confession of sins that can only be forgiven directly by the Pope given their gravity, and of granting dispensations and graces reserved to the Supreme Pontiff.

The apostolic constitution "Pastor Bonus" confirms that the competence of the Apostolic Penitentiary is concerned with those matters that pertain to the internal forum (questions of conscience), as well as everything that pertains to the granting and use of indulgences.