World News
English cardinal says recession might help fight consumer society
Published: February 16, 2009
LONDON (CNS) -- The current economic recession might result in the moral reawakening of people corrupted by a consumer society, said an English cardinal. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, said he hoped the global economic downturn marked the "end of a certain kind of selfish capitalism. This particular recession is a moment when we have to reflect as a country on what are the things that nourish the values (and) the virtues we want to have," he told the London-based newspaper The Times. "Capitalism needs to be underpinned with regulation and a moral purpose," he said in the Feb. 14 interview. He said he felt "very sorry" for those losing their jobs but added the recession would help people who had "lost their way" to focus on things that should really matter. "It has been difficult to bring up children with the kind of values we want. Let's face it, we now have a 'me, me' society, a more consumerist society, a utilitarian society, and our values and virtues have become diminished," he said.
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