Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical
Council for Justice and Peace, called on Monday for a financial system
and a global economy that respects the human person.
Speaking on the first day of the 3rd European Microfinance Forum (3rd
EMF) taking place in Rome, Cardinal Turkson quoted from Pope Francis’
encyclicals and messages that denounce the current culture of waste and
speak of an anthropological crisis that has placed wealth at the summit
of a scale of values.
He also praised the tools provided by microfinance
and microcredit which, he said, “not only have a positive economic
impact, but also a social and cultural one.
The Forum aims to provide public institutions, private sector
operators and non-profit organizations with an opportunity to debate and
share views from their various perspectives on economic and social
development and credit access.
In his speech Cardinal Turkson said that right from the beginning of his Pontificate, starting with his Encyclical Evangelii Gaudium,
Pope Francis has decried the fact that the current economic system is
founded on exclusion and a throwaway culture that produces inequity:
“that’s why he speaks of an economy that kills!”
Referring to the Pope’s Laudato Si‘ encyclical, Cardinal
Turkson continued: “the Pope says: “Once more, we need to reject a
magical conception of the market, which would suggest that problems can
be solved simply by an increase in the profits of companies or
individuals. Is it realistic to hope that those who are obsessed with
maximizing profits will stop to reflect on the environmental damage
which they will leave behind for future generations? Where profits alone
count, there can be no thinking about the rhythms of nature, its phases
of decay and regeneration, or the complexity of ecosystems which may be
gravely upset by human intervention.”
And quoting from Pope Francis’ words again, this time upon receiving
the Charlemagne Prize, Turkson said that the Pope clearly calls for the
urgent need to come up with “new, more inclusive and equitable economic
models, aimed not at serving the few, but at benefiting ordinary people
and society as a whole”. Doing this – he said – “calls for moving from a
liquid economy in which numbers are more important than people to a
social economy”.
“The Pope clearly indicates that it is unacceptable that “the death
from cold of an old man living on the streets doesn’t make the news
while the loss of 2 points on the stock exchange does”.
The cause of this, he said, is the anthropological crisis the world
is going through; and it is much deeper than the economic one: “the
denial of the primacy of the human person”.
Money and wealth – he
explained – are being worshipped as the new idol.
Cardinal Turkson also explained that the Pope does not limit himself
to criticizing the current economic model, but outlines the
characteristics of a more equal economy, that gives everyone the
possibility to participate within respect for human dignity and care for
the environment.
Indicating a social economy that “invests in persons by creating jobs
and providing training,” Cardinal Turkson said, the Pope asks us to
“move from a liquid economy prepared to use corruption as a means of
obtaining profits to a social economy that guarantees access to land and
lodging through labour.”
Highlighting the fact that we need a modern social market economy to
be able to tackle the challenges of unemployment, increasing inequality
and environmental degradation, the Cardinal stressed how the human
person and his and her fundamental and inalienable human rights must be
at the fulcrum of such a system.
Cardinal Turkson acknowledged that the crucial challenge a new model
of social economy will be called to face is globalization, and
especially that “globalization of indifference” that opposes a
globalization of solidarity.
The Cardinal concluded his speech saying that the tools provided by
microfinance and microcredit in tackling unemployment, inequality and
environmental degradation are of “crucial importance”.
Microcredit, he said, places trust in those who are not considered
“adequate” by banks to receive financial loans, “it places trust in the
marginalized, in the excluded of our throwaway culture, in their
capacity to get organized and bring about change for themselves, for
their families, for their communities”.
And, he said, microfinance and microcredit do not only have an economic impact, but a social and cultural one as well.
Cardinal Turkson concluded his address quoting from Evangelii Gaudium: “As
long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by
rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation,
and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will
be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems.”