Holy See: Real Crisis about More than Money

(November 1, 2008) The current global financial crisis goes beyond bad economic practices to the realm of ethics and moral codes, says the Holy See representative at the United Nations. Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said Thursday before the U.N. General Assembly that the Holy See agrees that the crisis "can be attributed to a lack of a complete and effective regulatory system." But the archbishop said the situation was also created by "widespread disregard for regulatory and supervisory structures, to say nothing of the rules of accountability and transparency." "The real crisis does not appear to be merely financial, economic and technical," he continued. "Rather, it extends to the broader realm of ethical codes and moral conduct. "Unbridled profiteering and the unscrupulous pursuit of gain at any cost have made people forget basic rules of business ethics." To that end, Archbishop Migliore said the proper response to the crisis should "not be limited to deploring the crisis and offering formal expressions of sympathy," but rather to "come up with the ways and means to avoid similar crises in the future." "Governments and institutions which rigorously implemented rules at the lower customer level were lax in maintaining that same rigor at the higher level," the Holy See representative lamented. "The same could also be said with regard to the economic systems of poorer countries."The principle of subsidiarity," he added, "requires that governments and large international agencies ensure solidarity on the national and global levels and between generations." The Holy See representative offered a second observation regarding the responsibilities of lending institutions. "Lending is a necessary social activity," the archbishop began. "Nonetheless, financial institutions and agents are responsible for ensuring that lending fulfils its proper function in society, connecting savings to production. In his closing comments, Archbishop Migliore called for credible and authentic lending, and urged governments to "invest in people."