Worse than Other Sins

by Editor · May 22, 2013

Before he was elected to the papacy, Pope Francis made a most startling statement: corruption, he said, is worse than any other sin because it hardens the heart against shame, repentance and conversion.

“Situations of sin and the state of corruption are two distinct realities, even if they are intimately linked to one another,” he said in a booklet titled Corruption and Sin: Reflections on the Theme of Corruption, published in 2005 when he was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires.
“A sinner expects forgiveness. The corrupt, on the contrary, don’t because they don’t feel they have sinned. They have prevailed,” the future Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis: “A sinner expects forgiveness. The corrupt, on the contrary, don’t because they don’t feel they have sinned. They have prevailed.” (CNS photo/Alessandro Bianchi, Reuters)

In short: corruption impairs the individual’s relationship with God.

In South Africa we have witnessed the rampant looting of the state by the powerful and the connected. All hopeful noises to the contrary, corruption is allowed to persist with impunity. Those who forthrightly act on corruption – people such as public protector Thuli Madonsela or the former head of the Special Investigating Unit, Willie Hofmeyr – may expect to be not protected by the government, but to be smeared, hounded and even fired.

South Africa’s story of corruption reached a point of the truly brazen with the saga of the Gupta family wedding.

Archbishop Stephen Brislin, in a statement issued on behalf of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, of which he is the president, pinpointed the problem: “This whole episode merely reinforces the perception that people who are well-connected politically do not have to observe the same rules as ordinary citizens.”

He added: “We cannot afford to gain the reputation of being a country where it is who you know that counts, and where wealth can buy privileged treatment from the authorities.”

Since the scandal broke, we have learnt more about the various ways in which the powerful Gupta family are alleged to take the allocation of state resources in their direction for granted and bullies those who stand in their way of receiving favours at the expense of the taxpayer.

Alas, the public outrage will inevitably blow over, because we have collectively resigned ourselves to accepting corruption as the way of things, be it on the level of politicians trading honesty and accountability for venal self-aggrandisement, or the gluttonous racketeering by financial institutions, or the crude shakedown of motorists by members of the police.

As a nation, we have submitted to a culture of impunity and the failure to curb it. The culture of impunity – the sense of exemption from responsibility towards others and to one’s own conscience – is at the root of all corruption. We see it in politics, business and finance, and we see it in criminals who fancy their chances of not being caught and convicted.

We might see it even in those whom we know, or even ourselves.

The culture of impunity manifests itself on our roads, where motorists believe traffic laws need to be obeyed only at the threat of these laws being enforced.

The culture of impunity has infected all of us who commit notionally minor infractions – drink-driving, littering, petty theft, tax evasion, adultery – simply because we can.

The erosion of ethics and morality in South Africa is linked to this festering culture of impunity, the lack of personal, social and national responsibility and accountability.

South Africa’s ethical regeneration is tied to the defeat of the culture of impunity and corruption. And that fight begins with us, in all we do.

So when Pope Francis speaks of corruption as worse than other sins, he is referring not only to dishonest politicians, greedy bankers, price-fixing manufacturers, exploitative employers, heartless criminals and ethnic cleansers, but to all of us who are tempted by life’s seemingly minor infractions.

And, crucially, he warns that corruption is worse than any other sin because it alienates us from God.