Exposed: shining a light on corruption

(Vatican Radio) The Catholic Bishops of Southern Africa have written a Pastoral Letter on corruption pointing out that the scourge is much more than a Government Problem.

They have called for greater attention to the damage caused in society and in the Church by rampant corruption, and encourage all to work towards its eradication.

The Bishops have also called on Individual Christians and parishes to join in supporting the international ecumenical EXPOSED campaign that was set up to “shine a light” on corruption and do something about it.

Linda Bordoni asked Raymond Perrier, the director of the Jesuit Institute in South Africa to tell us about his organization’s involvement in the campaign.

Listen to the interview…

Perrier explains that The EXPOSED campaign was born from a coalition of Christian organizations. “It is an international ecumenical initiative to look at the scourge of corruption and what Christian communities can do about it”.

He says that it started in the UK, but it is spreading around the world and currently in South Africa it has been embraced with enthusiasm.

The idea behind the campaign – Perrier points out - “is to tackle corruption at three levels: at the personal level, at the local level, and at the global level”. Often he says “the problem behind corruption is that we tend to worry about the global question and not think about our personal role”.

The global level is focused on the upcoming G20 in Australia late next year. As part of that,people are being asked to sign an international petition, and to get their politicians involved in the campaign and so on.

At the local level – Perrier says - we are asking people to look at what is happening in their area in terms of corruption, and identifying it and addressing it. “One of the arguments is that corruption takes place because we don’t shine the light on it, we don’t draw attention to it and after a while we get used to it, we turn a blind eye”.


The third level is the personal level in which we must ask ourselves “what can I do?”, “what are the ways in which I am complicit in corruption, either because of corrupt practices or because I am turning a blind eye to corrupt practices that I know about and can do something about”.

To try to change the world – he says - we have to change ourselves.

Speaking of the reality in South Africa Perrier says that people in his country tend to take low-level corruption almost for granted. For example paying bribes to traffic officers etc is almost common practice so as not to be fined or arrested. What is interesting - he says - is the way in which people complain about corrupt police officers and that they don’t notice that actually if the motorist wasn’t bribing the police officers they wouldn’t be corrupt. “So it’s easy to point the finger at those who are receiving the bribe, but perhaps people don’t recognize what complicity they have as the person who is paying the bribe”.

Perrier goes on to talk about how people don’t hold politicians into account and how corruption corrodes the basis of good governance.

Regarding the Exposed campaign, Perrier says one of the practices is to put in the back of the Church a “bribe book” or a “bribe box”. The idea of that is that if you are asked to pay a bribe, you write in the book or on a piece of paper: the place, the time, the date and what the situation was. You don’t put the name of the person – it is not about pointing fingers at individuals. At the end of the month, the information is gathered and a pattern emerges which allows people in positions of power or responsibility to start holding public officials or other such figures into account.

Perrier comments on the Pastoral Letter written by the Bishops of Southern Africa which was distributed and read throughout the parishes or their areas. This letter contains a quote by Pope Francis who describes corruption as one of the worst sins as it hardens the heart…