Presentation of the new document on Financial ethics

Presentation of the new document on  Financial ethics

Card. Peter K. A. Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Integral Development, participated in the presentation of the new document on financial ethics, promoted by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, at the Vatican Press Office on 17 May 2018.

Entitled "Oeconomicae et Pecuniarie Quaestiones", the document includes “Considerations for an Ethical Discernment Regarding some aspects of the present Economic-Financial system”.

The Introduction reads:

“[…] The recent financial crisis might have provided the occasion to develop a new economy, more attentive to ethical principles, and a new regulation of financial activities that would neutralise predatory and speculative tendencies and acknowledge the value of the actual economy. Although there have been many positive efforts at various levels which should be recognized and appreciated, there does not seem to be any inclination to rethink the obsolete criteria that continue to govern the world.[10] On the contrary, the response seems at times like a return to the heights of myopic egoism, limited by an inadequate framework that, excluding the common good, also excludes from its horizons the concern to create and spread wealth, and to eliminate the inequality so pronounced today.

At stake is the authentic well-being of a majority  of the men and women of our planet who are at risk of being “excluded and marginalized”[11] from  development and true well-being while a minority, indifferent to the condition of the majority, exploits and reserves for itself substantial resources and wealth. Therefore, it is time to initiate the recovery of what is authentically human, to expand the horizons of minds and hearts, to recognize faithfully the exigencies of the true and the good without which no social, political and economic system could avoid bankruptcy, failure, and, in the long term, collapse. Selfishness, in the end, does not pay while it makes everyone pay a high price; hence, if we want the real well-being of humanity, “Money must serve, not rule! »

For this reason, the competent and responsible agents have the duty to develop new forms of economy and of finance, with rules and regulations directed towards the enlargement of the common good and respect for human dignity along the lines indicated by the social teachings of the Church […]”.

On Vatican News there is also an interview with the Economist, Leonardo Becchetti, Professor of Political Economics at the “Tor Vergata” University, who participated in the presentation of the document  

Here is the full text of the document. 

17 May 2018