Troublesome priests

Finally, the Church of England has found something worthwhile to complain about. Instead of getting in a tangle over women bishops and gay clergy. Rowan Williams (Canterbury) and John Sentamu (York) have found a subject worth bringing into the public debate.

Both have harshly criticised the banking and finance system for finding multiple buillions of dollars to support its own corrupt and failing kingdom, while they have busily ignored calls to alleviate poverty and starvation around the world. Too expensive, they say. Free market economies, they say. By this they mean the opportunity for Western corporates to impose their own rules and cartels on the rest of the world, rich or poor. You can only prosper by being like us, they say, and here's how we do it. Well, look how it ends.

So full marks to the CofE for finally sounding off, prophetically, about structural injustices and the venalities of capitalism. How many millions of lives could be saved using aid that amounted to even 1% of what it is proposed to spend to prop up the spivs and short sellers? How many hospitals could be built, how many schools?

We could go even further. I don't have the numbers, but I'd like to see how much money in total has been spent on the Iraq invasion, and either spent or proposed on the credit crunch rescue? Does any voter anywhere in any country seriously think that all of this is well spent, apart from shareholders in the arms trade, power-hungry politicians and hard-right think tanks?

So I'd like to say "Well done you clerics, " for a change. I'd like to hear a constant prophetic tirade from you on subjects that genuinely matter. Be a bit more like the South American Catholic bishops of recent years. Let's bring back the fine old tradition of troublesome priests. Oh, and why not start liquidating some of the huge assets you've built up over the centuries, and putting the cash to good use. That's called "selling all that you have and giving to the poor." It's quite biblical, I believe.