Pope: “Corruption Is a Greater Evil than Sin”

Posted on October 25, 2014
 
Modern interpretation of Christ driving the money changers from the temple by Anthony Freda/Daniel Zollinger

“More than Forgiven, This Evil Must Be CURED”

Preface: If you are an atheist (or adherent of another faith) and believe that the Catholic faith is crazy, you are obviously entitled to your belief.  But please remember that very few Americans are atheists … and the majority don’t trust atheists.  More importantly, it’s wise to work with allies on core issues, such as fighting corruption … even if you would normally disagree with them. 
In this case, the Pope just may speak for a lot of allies.  After all, there are more than a billion Catholics worldwide.  Some 85% of the American population identifies itself as Christian, and 78 million Americans have been baptized into the Catholic Church. 

The U.S. has the world’s fourth largest Catholic population.


Legal authorities have done nothing to crack down on Wall Street corruption.  The U.S. government admits that it refuses to prosecute fraud … pretty much as an official policy.
Sure, a few “small fish” are indicted … but the big boys go free.  Indeed, there are two systems of justice in America … one for the Wall Street  fatcats, and one for everyone else.
In reality,  the government helped cover up the crimes of the big banks, used claims of national security to keep everything in the dark, and changed basic rules and definitions to allow the game to continue. See this, this, this and this.    Because fraudsters weren’t prosecuted and the banks weren’t broken up, the fraudsters are now committing bigger and bigger crimes, and banks are now bigger than ever … leaving the economy open to an even bigger crash than occurred in 2008.
Even the President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank has repeatedly said that bankers have to improve their ethics … but to no avail.
Why isn’t the government cracking down on corruption and fraud?  Because most government workers are themselves corrupt.  As is the government procurement process.
Yesterday, Pope Francis gave a powerful speech, directly addressing these problems (Google translate):
The scandalous concentration of global wealth is possible due to the connivance of public leaders with the powers that be. The corruption is itself a process of death … when life dies, there is corruption.There are few things more difficult than opening a breach in a corrupt heart: “So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich with God” (Luke 12:21). When the personal situation of the corrupt becomes complicated, he knows all the loopholes to escape as did the dishonest steward of the Gospel (cf. Lk 16.1 to 8).
The corrupt through life with shortcuts opportunism, with the air of one who says, “It was not me”, coming to internalize his mask as an honest man. It’s a process of internalization. The corrupt can not accept criticism, dismisses anyone who provides criticizes, tries to belittle any moral authority to question him, does not value the other and insults anyone who thinks differently.  If the balance of power permits, he  prosecutes anyone who contradicts him.
Corruption is expressed in an atmosphere of triumphalism because the corrupt fancies himself a winner. In that he struts to belittle others. The corrupt knows no fraternity or friendship, but complicity and enmity.
The corrupt does not perceive his corruption. It’s a little like what happens with bad breath … it’s hard for those who have it to know, unless someone else tells them.
For this reason, the corrupt can hardly get out of their internal state by way of remorse of conscience. Corruption is a greater evil than sin. More than forgiven, this evil must be cured.
Corruption has become “natural” to the point of getting to statehood linked to personal and social custom, a common practice in commercial and financial transactions, in public procurement, in any negotiation involving State agents. It is the victory of appearances over reality …

***
There are now many international conventions and treaties on the matter … not so much geared to protect the citizens, who ultimately are the latest victims – particularly the most vulnerable – but how to protect the interests of operators of economic markets and financial companies.
The penalty is selective. It is like a net that captures only the small fish, while leaving the big [fish] free in the sea.

(Note: I tried to improve Google translate’s rough translation. My Italian is rusty, and I would welcome a better translation from a fluent Italian speaker.)

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