The Enron scandal, the pensions crisis and global income inequality are issues that draw profound ethical dilemmas. This important relationship between ethics and economics will be discussed by Rev. Dr Frank McHugh of St Mary's University College, London, at the Gaudum et Spes Lecture 2006 organised by Discern, the Institute for Research on the Signs of the Times.

The lecture, entitled "Thinking Ethics while Teaching Economics", will be held on Tuesday, December 5, at 7 p.m. at Le Meridien Phoenicia, Floriana.

Fr McHugh is a Research Fellow in the field of Catholic social thought, which has crucial relevance to our growing global economy. Official documents of the Catholic Church regularly tackle economic concerns and Pope John Paul II praised private property and wealth creation as necessary for economic well-being and stability.

At the same time however, Catholic social thought reminds us that the fruits of the free market economy must be properly shared out in order to relieve poverty and distress. Profit is a good indicator of the success of a firm but it should not shadow the human and moral factors of business practice.

These ethical considerations are at the centre of current affairs such as the debate over the minimum wage, speculation on financial markets and today's consumerist culture. What is a just wage? Catholic social thought proposes that wages take account of the needs of the family and this family wage will reduce the dangerous reliance on the welfare state, which deprives people of their dignity and responsibility.

With regard to international global finance, where does ethics fit in? Millions of people people in Latin America, Africa and South East Asia are all too aware of the poverty that is created by speculative, improper and illegal financial activities on the big stage of global finance. And in the West are our economies overdeveloped? In our consumerist culture we may be enslaving ourselves as we are forgetting that economic freedom is but one part of the freedom of man.

Economics is often seen as being apart from the realm of ethics, but according to Catholic social thought, morality is essential to economics. The free market is not necessarily respectful of human dignity and thus it is important to explore ways in which the free market can better serve the needs of man.

All are invited to the lecture.