A necessary voice

The Catholic bishops in Europe, starting from COMECE (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community), are voicing their views on the current financial crisis. The crisis has been lasting for months, while it recently overflowed from the stock markets to the rest of society. A large number of families fear they will loose their homes, their savings, and soon also their jobs will be at risk. What initially was an unidentified concern has now started to turn into concrete fear. The institutions that had appeared to be reliable are undergoing a serious crisis: banks, emission banks, government and even the States. The bishops deem that making a statement on this situation and offering guidelines is a pastoral commitment in a context that is marked by chaos and decadence. The voice of the Church is all the more crucial in this present moment, as perceivable in the key concepts characterising political debate on the financial crisis. There is much talk of avidity, envy, responsibility and loyalty. The recently-neglected moral categories proclaimed for centuries by the Church, have suddenly recovered their primary role. A number of bishops have started to publicly address the issue, like the archbishop of Munich (Germany) Reinhard Marx, in charge of social questions. During Parliamentary debate, MEPs positively welcomed SPD party group Chairman Peter Struck’s reference to a passage from the interview granted by Msgr. Marx to Catholic News agency KNA. The Monsignor was quoted as calling for the recovery of morals on the part of financial operators and investors. While in mid-October, French bishops issued a press release appealing to a new approach to savings and loans. Bishops took a stand on the subject also throughout a number of European countries, while during the Synod, referring to the Old Testament, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the topic of global crisis with the words, “Money flees, but not God’s word”. Also COMECE expressed its view on the issue in a recent document. But a systematic analysis on the causes and consequences of the current crisis is still lacking. It’s important for Catholics to be able to refer to the Magisterium’s guideline in order to adopt appropriate actions in this perilous situation. This is all the more important since up to now, the most popular speakers are those who see in the financial crisis a bad omen for capitalism, forecasting the end of market economy. That very market economy that since 1950 led West-European Countries, and since 1990 East-European ones, to an unprecedented improvement of their living conditions. Also in Europe, this goodbye refrain to market economy is especially endorsed by the Catholic Church, which only at a later stage accepted the fundamental principles of this economic system, entailing business risks and representing the pillars of entrepreneurship. We ought to take the crossroads determined by the Encyclical “Centesimus Annus” in 1991 as our new point of departure. The Church never ceased demanding the respect of moral criteria that ought to be valid also and especially in market economy. If it’s true that the crisis wasn’t triggered by “too much market economy” but by the fact that a number of financial dealers and investment banks violated fundamental (moral!) norms of market economy, then the Church is in the position of speaking with greater authoritativeness than others. Lastly, it is to be hoped that the bishops, in their autonomous and specific realm, vigorously convey the voice of the Church also by participating in the debate regarding Europe’s market economy implementation (without speaking against it), on State jurisdiction, helping to draw a balance between freedom, responsibility and equity.