The European sovereign debt crisis is far from over and it is, as recent Italian elections have shown, at the center of European political debates. One of the main actors in the crisis has been the European Central Bank under the leadership of the Italian President Mario Draghi.

On February 27, Draghi gave an important speech at the Katholische Akademie in Bayern (Germany). The speech may be interesting for those studying the relationships among Catholic Social Doctrine, economics, and public policy. In the speech, Draghi reminds listeners how important it is not to separate economic from moral concerns and stresses that: “Ultimately, we must be guided by a higher moral standard and a profound belief in creating an economic order that serves every person.” He quotes Cardinal Reinhard Marx: “the economy is not an end in itself, but is in the service of all mankind”. According to Draghi, one of the central mechanisms to manage the current crisis is subsidiarity: the shared responsibility and mutual support between the EU supranational level and the different member states. For Draghi: “Catholic Social doctrine makes absolutely clear that subsidiarity has to be paired with support. But what binds these together is trust.” In sum, it is a speech worth reading to understand the euro-crisis from a Catholic Social Doctrine perspective.

The speech is available here.