US Cardinal Calls For Morality in Business

Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
7 Aug 2009

The top Roman Catholic bishop in the United States has said the global economic crisis was caused in part by people abandoning personal ethics, and he has called for increased morality in business.

Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the  pursuit of fast profits undermined the financial markets' ability to regulate themselves.

"An economy that substitutes efficiency for morality will end up both inefficient and immoral," Cardinal George said.

A restructured global economy is emerging, the Cardinal said, and it should promote development in poor nations while helping poor people in rich countries.

Investment money from poor nations is flowing to rich countries, worsening the poverty in poor nations.

"To help people live better lives, one needs to understand both the rules of economics and the moral law," he said.

The Cardinal was speaking at the annual convention of the Knights of Columbus, one of the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organisations.