by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The chairman of the U.S. Bishop’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development has sent a letter to government leaders asking them to consider five key principles during their consideration of the bail out of the nation’s economy.
According to Zenit News, Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Center, New York told leaders: “My brother bishops and I do not bring technical expertise to these complicated matters,” but said “our faith and moral principles can help guide the search for just and effective responses to the economic turmoil threatening our people.”
After promising to pray for the situation, Bishop Murphy asked leaders to first take into account the human and moral dimensions of the crisis.
“Economic arrangements, structures and remedies should have as a fundamental purpose safeguarding human life and dignity,” he affirmed, saying a “scandalous search for excessive economic rewards,” which gets to the point of exacerbating the vulnerable, is an example of “an economic ethic that places economic gain above all other values.”
Second, the bishop called for responsibility and accountability.
“Clearly, effective measures are required which address and alter the behaviors, practices and misjudgments that led to this crisis. […] Those who directly contributed to this crisis or profited from it should not be rewarded or escape accountability for the harm they have done,” he said.
Third, the bailout must take into account human needs.
“[T]here are human needs which find no place on the market,” Bishop Murphy said. “It is a strict duty of justice and truth not to allow fundamental human needs to remain unsatisfied.” In this regard, he called for a “renewal of instruments of monitoring and correction within economic institutions and the financial industry as well as effective public regulation and protection to the extent this may be clearly necessary.”
The fourth principle he encouraged is solidarity and the common good.
“The principle of solidarity reminds us that we are in this together and warns us that concern for narrow interests alone can make things worse,” he explained. “The principle of solidarity commits us to the pursuit of the common good, not the search for partisan gain or economic advantage.”
Finally, Bishop Murphy urged lawmakers to recall the principle of subsidiarity.
“Subsidiarity places a responsibility on the private actors and institutions to accept their own obligations,” he said. “If they do not do so, then the larger entities, including the government, will have to step in to do what private institutions will have failed to do.”
Bishop Murphy concluded by quoting from the encyclical “Centesiumus Annus”: “Our Catholic tradition calls for a society of work, enterprise and participation which is not directed against the market, but demands that the market be appropriately controlled by the forces of society and by the state to assure that the basic needs of the whole society are satisfied.”
He recommended that “these words of John Paul II should be adopted as a standard for all those who carry this responsibility for our nation, the world and the common good of all.”
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