It seems that corruption is determined to monopolize the front pages of the media, the radio talk shows and the TV sets.

During the last few weeks a new financial term has made a fortune in the scripts of the informative soap operas: opaque cards, which is like the new name for the old patent of corso.

The problem could not be ignored in an ethics class and as usually happens at the time of the discussion, the usual disparity of opinions arose. I raised with the students in San Sebastian the convenience of cultivating the natural law that always enables one to discover what is just or unjust, alluding to the scandal of the opaque cards.

One of the young people was of the opinion that this latest scandal had been magnified by the media and that, according to him, this system of cards could constitute a lawful system of retribution internship . The whole class together with the professor, objected that it seems unethical to allow from an entity with social purposes that some privileged people enjoy the possibility of making luxurious expenses indiscriminately without more control than a prefixed standard amount. We also concluded that in times of severe economic crisis and evictions, the seriousness of the scandal was a slap in the face of the victims of the crisis.

The obvious conclusion of the classroom pointed out that a moral regeneration is urgently needed, including the goal to form consciences well.

The financial crimes that are so widespread in our country and throughout Europe challenge the consciences of those who would like to act with rectitude, but succumb to pressures and interests, because perhaps they have not managed to strengthen their ethical conscience to resist the practical tricks.

Among the proposals that during the last few weeks were spread by some media, the one that stood out was that of some who advocate to reward with economic rewards those who denounce bad practices....

Many of us have come to report the image of those posters that in western movies are headed with "Wanted!" and show the face of the criminal and the amount of the reward.

Reflecting on this initiative, while preparing the classes I will be teaching next week, I remembered the teachings of an old Logic professor during my university years. Don Jorge -that was his name- defended that we all must fulfill our obligations and this is asked of any person. It is, he affirmed, one of the basic attitudes for social coexistence to be fair. Therefore, he concluded, it is normal for each and every one of us to fulfill our duty. With these premises, the professor, judged that rewarding the fulfillment of what must be done with extra rewards, prizes, tips, beyond salaries, fair contracts, etc., ends up generating a culture in which it is implicitly recognized that the extraordinary thing is to do what must be done, and the ordinary thing is to fail to comply with what has been agreed. Don Jorge, based on this argument, advocated eliminating any added reward subject , including tips, and re-educating citizens on the fulfillment of their duties, and of course, in the defense of their rights.

In continuity with the proposals of my old professor, recent history has shown us that group of workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plant were awarded in 2011 with the award Prince of Asturias. A few days ago, Teresa Sanjurjo, Director of that Foundation recalled with emotion that those Japanese, who have been called "heroes", were surprised to be awarded with this reflection: "We have only done our duty".

I think that between all of us, especially in the classroom, we have a new challenge to accompany the new university generations in rediscovering the beauty in the cultivation of true and certain consciences, transparent, capable of illuminating the opacities of the economic, social and financial systems. It is a matter of clarifying in each case with a decisive discernment what is right and what is always to be considered evil, with an eye fixed on justice and the urgent need for the common good. At final we need existential attitudes that are like an echo of the Gospel: "We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we ought to have done" (Lk 17:7-10). Undoubtedly, this commitment requires us to be heroic, authentic martyrs of moral coherence, as St. John Paul II pointed out in Veritatis Splendor, but let us imagine for a moment its beneficial and regenerating effect in the face of the current subculture of corruption.