Print Article | Email Article | Write To Us

Cardinal: Politics Needs God

Share
Tuesday, September 30, 2008 4:45 PM Comments (1)

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. (CNS)

Exclusion of God and religion from public life has contributed to a host of contemporary social problems — including the current financial crisis.

That’s the assessment delivered by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, in a Sept. 30 speech at a conference in Rome sponsored by the Aspen Institue.

Discussing the relationship of politics and religion in the age of globalization, Cardinal Bertone said, “I am convinced that politics is necessary, but I believe that, to communicate genuine values, it must respect the ‘bridge’ that unites each of these values with God.”

Without that bridge of transcendence, Cardinal Bertone said, politics loses sight of the common good and focuses instead on selfish, short-term goals.

The negative consequences of that approach can be seen in a variety of contemporary problems, including the “present financial crisis,” he said.

Said Cardinal Bertone, “Wherever one’s own benefit is sought in the short term, virtually identifying that with the good, one ends up by canceling one’s own benefit.”

— Tom McFeely

Filed under politics, vatican, wall street crisis

Comments

Post a Comment

and about the vatican pedophily how do tou think?

Post a Comment

By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.

Name:

Email:

Write your comment:

Please enter the word you see in the image below:

     

Notify me of follow-up comments.

About Staff Bloggers

Staff Bloggers
  • Get the RSS feed
Tom Wehner, John Burger, and Amy Smith are among the National Catholic Register editors and other writers who will be blogging here.

E-mail Signup

Receive our free e-mail updates!

As part of this free service, you will receive occasional special offers