ROME - A top Vatican official said Tuesday that the world's financial crisis is the result of the search for short-term profits as a goal in itself _ and an example of what happens when basic rights and the common good are ignored.
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Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's No. 2 official, delivered a major speech on religion in a globalized world, following Pope Benedict XVI's call for religion to be given more room in society.
Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, said that in a globalized era "politics and the market are not everything."
They are, he said, a means but not an end. And he said that when God is ignored, the ability to respect basic rights and recognize the common good fades away.
