The top Roman Catholic bishop in the United States said Wednesday the global economic crisis was caused in part by people abandoning personal ethics, and he's calling for increased morality in business.Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the pursuit of fast profits undermined the financial markets' ability to regulate themselves.
"An economy that substitutes efficiency for morality will end up both inefficient and immoral," George said in a speech Tuesday, the first night of the three-day annual convention of the Knights of Columbus, one of the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organizations.
George said a restructured global economy is emerging, and it should promote development in poor nations while helping poor people in rich countries. Investment money from poor nations is flowing to rich countries, worsening the poverty in poor nations, he said.
"To help people live better lives, one needs to understand both the rules of economics and the moral law," George said.
George was one of more than 80 cardinals and bishops at the Knights of Columbus convention, which organizers describe as the largest gathering of American bishops outside their official annual meeting.
The Knights of Columbus is a group of 1.78 million practicing Catholic men who volunteer inside and outside of the church.
The organization is run by lay people but works closely with the church to help with its day-to-day operation and promote its social and religious teachings.
Much like the ceremonies of the church itself, the Knights' convention is a spectacle steeped in tradition. Men wear white-coated tuxedos to the annual "States Dinner," which opens with the national anthems of the eight countries represented.
In brief remarks, the group's leader, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, said immigrants from Latin America are playing an important role in shaping the future of the Church in Arizona.
"Here, as in so much of the United States, our church has been enriched and revitalized by Hispanic immigration," Anderson said. "The Catholic church in the United States has always grown and has always been revitalized by immigrants."
In a report released this week, the Knights reported a 3.5 percent hike in donations over the past year despite a struggling economy. The numbers mirror similar findings in some church dioceses.
The increases come on the heels of a report, released in June by Giving USA Foundation, that showed overall charitable giving was down about 2 percent in 2008.
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SIC: AP