(November 29, 2008) The worldwide financial crisis will become a catastrophe if the
dignity of the human person is not protected, the Holy See is cautioning. This is
the warning sounded by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy
See to the United Nations, a day before the Doha conference on progress in international
cooperation in development. The conference began Saturday and runs through Dec. 2.
"For some time now, we've found ourselves in the middle of a financial crisis that
could become a catastrophe if it is allowed to affect other crises: economy, food,
energy," the archbishop told Vatican Radio. "It seems that a decided return of the
public sector to financial markets is necessary. It is necessary to increase coordination
and unity in the search for solutions. "It is necessary to recover some basic dimensions
of finances, that is, the primacy of labour over capital, of human relationships over
mere financial transactions, of ethics over the sole criterion of efficacy." The
Holy See representative recalled that "experts tell us that in this situation it would
be highly counterproductive to raise up new barriers, as much for the interchange
of goods and services, as for investments. Every protectionist measure of this kind
could increase the tension of the current economic situation." Above all, Archbishop
Migliore affirmed, "criteria more in line with the human person" need to be adopted.
That is why, he concluded, the problem is ethical: "There were already many rules
and ethical codes before the crisis; the problem is that great impunity was given
to those who didn't respect them. "It is also a problem of leadership, of governments'
moral authority at all levels, which have the primary responsibility of protecting
citizens, above all workers, those who save, normal people who do not have the possibilities
of following the complicated financial engineering and who have to be defended against
the tricks and abuse of the smart alecks."