Pontifical Council for
Justice and Peace: The Fight against Corruption
October 10, 2006
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"The Fight Against Corruption"
1. The International Conference organized by the Pontifical Council for
Justice and Peace on the theme "The Fight against Corruption" was held
in the Vatican on June 2-3, 2006. Participants included high-level
officials of international organizations, specialists and scholars,
ambassadors to the Holy See, professors and experts.
The purpose of the conference, as stated by Cardinal Renato Raffaele
Martino, was to arrive at a better understanding of the phenomenon of
corruption, to identify the best methods for countering it and to
explain the contribution that the Church can make in this undertaking.
Distinguished speakers, scholars and experts on the phenomenon in
question helped the participants gain insight into what corruption is
and how to counter it at the global level (Antonio Maria Costa), in the
private sector (François Vincke), in the public sector (David
Hall), in civil society (Jong-Sung You), in rich countries and in poor
countries (Eva Joly), depicting the harsh impact of this phenomenon on
the poor people of the world (Cobus de Swardt) and the characteristics
of a culture of corruption (Paul Wolfowitz). Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi
presented an overview of the aspects of the social doctrine of the
Church regarding these issues.
2. The phenomenon of corruption has always existed, nonetheless it is
only in recent years that awareness of it has grown at the
international level. In fact, with regard to conventions on corruption
and plans of action adopted by individual states and groups of states
and by international organizations in the area of international trade,
in the discipline of international commerce and especially in the field
of finances, the majority of these efforts have been made in the last
15 years. This means that corruption has only recently become
recognized as a significant phenomenon and that a negative judgment of
it is spreading at the worldwide level, while at the same time there is
a growing awareness of the need to fight it. To this end, methods for
an empirical analysis and a quantitative assessment of corruption have
been put into place that will allow for a better understanding of the
dynamics behind the illegal practices connected with it. Thus, it will
be possible to come up with more adequate methods, and not only
law-based systems and repression, to fight these phenomena.
This recent change was brought about in particular by two important
historical factors: The fall of ideological blocs after 1989 and the
globalization of information. Both of these processes have contributed
to shedding greater light on corruption and making people more
effectively aware of it. The opening up of borders as a result of the
process of globalization has made it possible for corruption to expand
with greater facility in respect to the past, but also offers greater
opportunity to fight it, by means of more resolute and coordinated
international cooperation.
3. Corruption is a phenomenon that is not limited by politics or
geography. It exists in rich countries and in poor countries. The
economic impact of corruption is difficult to establish with precision;
in fact, available data is often inconsistent. Nonetheless, we are
dealing with enormous amounts of resources that are taken away from the
economy, from production and from social programs. The costs are borne
by the citizens: The price of corruption is paid by using monies
intended for the legitimate use of society.
Corruption crosses all social sectors: It cannot be attributed only to
those who work in the economic sector or only to public officials; nor
is civil society exempt. Corruption is a phenomenon that involves both
individual states and international organizations.
A ready climate for corruption is fostered by a lack of transparency in
international finances, by the existence of financial havens and by the
disparity between the level at which corruption is fought -- often
limited to the level of single states -- and the level at which
corruption is carried out, usually at the supranational and
international levels. It is also facilitated by limited cooperation
between states in the fight against corruption, by the excessive
differences in the norms of various legal systems, by the lack of media
coverage of corruption in parts of the world, and by the lack of
democracy in various countries. Without a free press, without
democratic systems of checks and balances, without transparency,
corruption is made that much easier.
Corruption is a cause of great concern today, in that it is also
connected to drug trafficking, to money laundering, to the illegal
trade of arms, and to other forms of criminality.
4. If corruption causes serious harm from a material point of view and
places a costly burden on economic growth, still more harmful are its
effects on immaterial goods, closely connected to the qualitative and
human dimension of life in society. Political corruption, as the
Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church teaches, "compromises
the correct functioning of the state, having a negative influence on
the relationship between those who govern and the governed. It causes a
growing distrust with respect to public institutions, bringing about a
progressive disaffection in the citizens with regard to politics and
its representatives, with a resulting weakening of institutions" (No.
411).
There are very clear and empirically demonstrated connections between
corruption and an absence of culture, between corruption and functional
limitations of institutional systems, between corruption and the index
of human development, between corruption and social injustices. This is
not merely a process that weakens the economic system: Corruption
hinders the promotion of the person and makes societies less just and
less open.
5. The Church considers corruption to be a very serious fact that
distorts the political system. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of
the Church offers a very negative judgment: "Corruption radically
distorts the role of representative institutions, because they are used
as an arena for political bartering between clients' requests and
governmental services. In this way political choices favor the narrow
objectives of those who possess the means to influence these choices
and are an obstacle to bringing about the common good of all citizens"
(No. 411). Corruption is listed "among the causes that greatly
contribute to underdevelopment and poverty" (No. 447) and sometimes it
is also present within the very mechanisms by which aid is given to
poor countries.
Corruption deprives peoples of a basic common good, that of legality:
respect for rules, the correct functioning of economic and political
institutions and transparency. Legality is truly a common good intended
for everyone. In fact, it is a critical key to development, insofar as
legality makes it possible to establish correct relationships between
society, the economy and politics, and insofar as it makes possible the
framework of trust on which economic activity is based. As a "common
good," it must be appropriately promoted by all people, in fact all
peoples have a right to the good that is legality. Among those things
that are owed to men and women by virtue of their being human persons
is, precisely, legality. The practice and the culture of corruption
must be replaced by the practice and the culture of legality.
6. From the perspective of overcoming corruption, very positive
developments are seen in the transition from authoritarian to
democratic societies, from closed to open societies, from vertical to
horizontal societies, from centralized to participatory societies. But
this passage is not automatically positive. Great care must be taken
that the new openness does not undermine the strength of moral
convictions and that plurality is not a hindrance to solid social
bonds. The breakdown of moral standards in many advanced societies can
conceal a great danger of corruption, as great as the danger present in
the rigidity of so many archaic societies. There are societies that are
highly structured, very rigid and closed, and even societies that are
authoritarian within themselves or toward the outside world. There are
societies that show much greater flexibility and mobility, with
streamlined structures and democratic institutions that are open and
free.
On the one hand, we can note how corruption is facilitated in the first
type of societies, because it is more difficult to become aware of the
presence of corruption within them: Those who are corrupt and who
corrupt others can remain hidden and even protected when there is no
transparency and when the state is not authentically based on the rule
of law. Corruption can perpetuate itself because it can count on a
situation of stability. On the other hand, however, we can easily note
how, in the second type of societies also, there are hidden dangers.
Excessive pluralism can possibly cause an undermining of the ethical
consensus of the citizens. Confusion arising from different life styles
can also weaken moral judgment with regard to corruption. The
disappearance of the internal and external borders of these societies
can lead to facilitation of the international exportation of corruption.
7. To avoid these dangers the Church's social doctrine proposes the
concept of "human ecology" ("Centesimus Annus," 38), which can also be
a useful criterion in the fight against corruption. The attitudes of
corruption can be satisfactorily understood only if they are seen as
the result of a breakdown of human ecology. If the family is not put in
a position to fulfill its educational role, if laws contrary to the
authentic good of men and women -- such as those against life --
miseducate citizens concerning what is good, if the pace of justice is
excessively slow, if basic morality is weakened by tolerance of
transgressions, if living conditions have deteriorated, if schools do
not stimulate personal growth and do not create independence, it is not
possible to guarantee "human ecology"; and the absence of human ecology
allows the phenomenon of corruption to thrive.
In fact, it must not be forgotten that corruption implies a whole
series of relationships and complicity; it involves the numbing of
consciences, blackmail and threats, unwritten agreements and
conspiracies that first involve, overall, people and people's moral
conscience, and after, their structures. This, then, is the context for
the enormously important task of the moral education and formation of
citizens, and for the duty of the Church, which -- with her
communities, institutions, movements and associations, and with the
presence of individual members of the faithful in every segment of
modern society -- can play an ever more significant role in preventing
corruption. The Church can cultivate and promote the moral resources
that will help to build a "human ecology" in which corruption will not
find an hospitable habitat.
8. The Church's social doctrine makes use of all its fundamental
guiding principles, which it puts forth as indications of personal and
collective behavior, placing them on the front-line in the battle
against corruption. These principles are the dignity of the human
person, the common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, the preferential
option for the poor, the universal destination of goods. Corruption
stands in radical contrast to all these principles. It exploits the
human person, disdainfully using men and women for selfish interests.
It represents an obstacle for achieving the common good, because it is
based on individualistic criteria of selfish cynicism and illicit
special interests.
It is a contradiction of solidarity because it gives rise to injustice
and poverty, and a contradiction of subsidiarity because it does not
respect the different social and institutional roles but corrupts them.
It also acts against the preferential option for the poor by hindering
the proper delivery to the poor of the resources intended for them.
Finally, it stands in contrast to the universal destination of goods
because the good of legality, as we have already seen, is a human good
for every man and woman, intended for all people.
The whole of the Church's social doctrine proposes a perspective of
social relationships that is completely at odds with the practice of
corruption. Thus we can understand the gravity of this phenomenon and
the Church's utterly negative judgment with regard to it. We can also
understand the origin of the great resource that the Church brings to
the fight against corruption: the entire body of her social doctrine
and the work of those who are inspired by it.
9. The fight against corruption requires a greater conviction, by means
of the consensus given to moral evidence, and a greater awareness that
this fight will provide important social advantages. According to the
teaching of "Centesimus Annus": "Man tends toward good, but he is also
capable of evil. He can transcend his immediate interest and still
remain bound to it. The social order will be all the more stable, the
more it takes this fact into account and does not place in opposition
personal interest and the interests of society as a whole, but rather
seeks ways to bring them into fruitful harmony" (No. 25).
This is a very effective and realistic criterion. It tells us to aim at
the characteristics of virtuous behavior in men and women, and also to
encourage these characteristics; to think of the fight against
corruption as a value, and also as a need; that corruption is an evil,
and that it also involves a great price; that rejecting corruption is a
good, and also an advantage; that abandoning corrupt practices can lead
to development and well-being; that behavior marked by honesty is to be
encouraged and behavior marked by dishonesty is to be punished. In the
fight against corruption it is very important that responsibility for
illicit acts be exposed, that the guilty be punished with reparative
measures aimed at restoring socially responsible behavior. It is
likewise important that there be rewards for countries and economic
partnerships that work in conformity with an ethical code that does not
tolerate corrupt practices.
10. On the international level, the fight against corruption requires
that people work together to increase transparency in economic and
financial transactions and to enact within different countries uniform
legislation in this area. At the present time funds arising from
corruption are easily concealed, as are the dishonest gains of corrupt
governments; these governments are able to export huge amounts of
capital effortlessly with many forms of complicity. Harmonized or
uniform legislation is to be encouraged as a step in prevention, so
that poor countries do not attract this illicit capital solely because
such uniform legislation is lacking.
Since organized crime knows no borders, international cooperation
between governments also needs to increase, at least with regard to
juridical cooperation in the area of extradition. The ratification of
agreements against corruption is very important, and it is desirable
that the number of countries ratifying and enforcing the U.N.
Convention against Corruption increase. There remains, however, the
problem of the concrete application of these agreements, since --
because of political motivation -- they are not observed in many
countries, even in countries that have signed them. It is necessary
that a common accord be found also at the international level for
confiscating and recovering what has been illegally obtained; at
present, norms regulating such procedures exist only within individual
Nations.
It is the hope of many that an international authority against
corruption will be established, with the ability to act autonomously
even while working in conjunction with States, and with the ability to
verify whether crimes of international corruption have been committed
and, if verified, to punish the perpetrators. The principle of
subsidiarity can be useful in this area, applying it to the different
levels of authority at work in the fight against corruption.
11. A particular kind of attention is called for with regard to poor
countries: they must be helped, as noted above, when there are voids at
the level of legislation and when they do not yet have adequate legal
institutions for the fight against corruption. Bilateral or
multilateral cooperation in the area of justice -- for the improvement
of prison systems, the acquisition of investigative competence, the
structural independence of the courts with respect to the government --
is most useful and is to be fully included in aid given for development.
Corruption in developing countries is sometimes caused by Western
corporations or even by state or international agencies; other times it
is brought about by corrupt local oligarchies. Only with a consistent
and disciplined approach on the part of rich countries will it be
possible to help the governments of poorer countries to acquire
credibility. A most desirable approach is certainly the promotion of
democracy in all countries, the promotion of a free and vigilant press,
and the revitalization of civil society. Specific plans on the part of
international agencies, developed on a country-by-country basis, can
lead to good results in this area.
The local Churches are heavily involved in the formation of a civil
conscience and in the education of citizens to a true democracy;
episcopal conferences of many countries, have made interventions
against corruption and on behalf of a society that is governed by law.
Local Churches should cooperate in a valuable manner with international
organizations in the fight against corruption.
Vatican City, Sept. 21, 2006
Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino
President
Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi
Secretary