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“The modern economy is necessarily financial. But money, as an indispensable means, is so fascinating that it can become a tyranny”: so says Michel Camdessus, former director of the International Monetary Fund and now chairman of the Social Weeks of French Catholics. His reflections on money are contained in an article written for the bi-monthly journal ( Snop) of the French Episcopal Conference. The 78th Social Week of France will in fact be held in Paris from 14 to 16 November, on the theme “Money”. This year’s Week, explains Camdessus, is “the daughter of the one last year, which tackled the theme of violence”. This is because “economic violence raised so many questions that it was felt worthwhile to focus this year on this type of violence, whose consequences are 60 million dispossessed in Europe and 80% of mankind sharing just 20% of the world’s resources”. But after 2000 years, warns Camdessus, “we must finally choose between God and mammon”. To “escape the fascination of money, we must try to understand it better, without letting ourselves be intimidated by the technical jargon of modern finance”. “Money poses questions to us because it is at the heart of the injustice, inequality, frustration and bad conscience of our societies. Perhaps it especially questions us Camdessus suggests because it is an instrument of power, so much so that it’s only one step further to identify it with Power itself”. These questions, he concludes, “affect the whole world and contribute to its evils. We need to find a suitable response if we want to restore to money its proper place in our lives and in our countries”.
