The root cause:
The Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, said this week the financial crisis in the United States and the rest of the world is a consequence of the idolatry of money and power.
This idolatry has manifested itself in the network of corrupt officials who were greedy for more and therefore did not properly carry out their roles, Cardinal Cipriani said.
“They adore money and therefore, they engage in deceit. They issued a series of mortgages that had no value, and that, multiplied by millions has led to this flood of fraudulent corruption,” the cardinal said on his weekly radio program.
The cardinal warned that idolizing power and money has reached “very troubling levels in the world.” When money and power are “the only objects of our lives, they end in problems,” he said.
“When there is so much desire for money, it is for power, and when there is a desire for power it is for money. All of this just to impose our subjectivism, arrogance and pride,” the cardinal stated.
We will debate this and left will blame right and right will blame left – but, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves”. Look in the mirror, and there is our problem. There is much idolatry these days, and much excuse making – and even more turning a blind eye. It is an old saw but a true one which says that for evil to triumph it is only required that good men do nothing.
One of the wisest things a person can say from time to time is, “I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault,
in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do…”. It goes on a bit from there, but the most important thing for us to remember is that there’s no point in congratulating ourselves on not being entirely nasty – we’ve all screwed up and added our aliquot portion to the world’s misery. It is time – and high time – that we started acting like men and women and started to set the world to rights. We can continue down this path, and we can even manage this crisis but, eventually, everything has to be paid for; or we can turn aside and start to live as human beings are supposed to live – with love, and mercy and a quiet modesty which understands the limitations of all people.
Blogs For Victory 