A
international colloquium on the theme ‘Banking on the Common Good’ is
taking place in the Vatican on Monday, with discussions focused on how
to bring ethical values to bear on the world’s financial and monetary
systems.
Jointly sponsored by the Pontifical Justice and Peace
Council and several institutes supporting a values based economy, the
colloquium took as its starting point a recent document from the Council
which explores the roots of the global financial crisis.
In a key
note speech, the president of the Pontifical Council, Cardinal Peter
Turkson from Ghana, said the past five years of economic crisis have
shown there is an urgent need to restore public trust in the banks and
other financial institutions. This can only be done, he said, if their
activities are more focused on the common good and if there is some form
of effective governance to make sure this goal is achieved.
Cardinal
Turkson highlights the imbalance between a rapid globalisation of the
world's economic system and the lack of a corrsponding political
authority to monitor this global phenomenon.
He says initiatlly
there was a bit of concern, since some thought the Council's document
was proposing a form of government, but he says "We never used that
word. We're talking about authority and that can be regional, or it can
be a series of authorities within, for example, the banking sector, the
insurance sector, all meant to ensure that the Common Good is not left
out..."
There is a need to work for profit, the Cardinal insists, but
also a big need to work for values.
"Values must increasingly be seen
as a gain and that's what we're pushing for."