One gift that Catholicism has to offer a troubled world is a comprehensive theory of social justice, worked out from first principles. It is not infallible nor is it complete, though as well as helping to answer such pressing questions as, “Why is corruption wrong?”, it also, even more topically, addresses the question, “Why is racism wrong?”

In an increasingly amoral social environment, many people are looking for clear bearings. But, as with corruption, so with race, the misdeeds of the messenger have obscured the truth of its message. The Church’s authority has been weakened by the revelations of child sexual abuse by clergy. But it is also true that in its formal teaching, in its official deeds and in the behaviour of its ordinary members, opposition to racism has not, by and large, been given the attention it deserves.