Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - “Christians charged with responsibility in the business world are challenged to combine the legitimate pursuit of profit with a deeper concern for the spread of solidarity and the elimination of the source of poverty which continues to afflict so many members of the human family ”. Pope John Paul II said this in a message to about 80 Christian executives - from major companies in 27 different countries - meeting 5 and 6 March at the offices of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in the Vatican for a study Seminar organised jointly with UNIAPAC International Union of Christian Company Directors on the theme: “The Business Executive: Social Responsibility and Globalisation”.
“The present Conference is taking place - the Holy Father says - at a time when the financial and commercial sector is becoming increasingly aware of the need for sound ethical practices which ensure that business activity remains sensitive to its fundamentally human and social dimensions ”. “In a world tempted by consumerist and materialist outlooks - the Papal message affirms - Christian executives are called to affirm the priority of ‘being’ over ‘having’”. And referring to globalisation, John Paul II underlines that, “carried out in respect for the values of different nations and ethnic groupings, can contribute significantly to the unity of the human family and enable forms of cooperation which are not only economic but also social and cultural”.
After reading the Pope’s Message the President Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace Cardinal Renato R. Martino, greeted those present and he acknowledged the “hard work of executives which calls for creativity and dedication, in an extremely competitive environment where certain decision can be costly and fatal for the lives of many people. It is a question of the very credibility of the economic system which enables business to have success and society to benefit”.
For his part, the President of UNIAPAC Etienne Wibaux recalled that three billion of the world’s people live in poverty and he quoted Paolo VI in the Populorum Progressio who says “if the pursuit of development demands an ever greater number of qualified persons, it demands even more so men of thought capable of profound reflection dedicated to the search for a new humanism to enable modern man to find himself again assuming the highest values of love, friendship, prayer and contemplation ”.
On 5 March the participants discussed indications given by Professor Giovanni Manzone of the Pontifical Lateran University on the theme: “The ethical and social finalities of business profit ”. Among other things he said “profit, although not the aim of a business is still a crucial horizon: it is the means from carrying on with the business. The test for a company is not whether it reaches the maximum profit, but whether it makes sufficient profit to cover the risks of economic activity and thereby avoid losses”. “By linking profit with innovation - he said - the market helps harmonise the individual interests of the company with those of society and consumers and therefore allows a general interest … A strategy of acceptable profit will not develop a monopolist position, but instead a position which strives to identify the company’s strong points and develop those able to efficiently produce new products and services”.
On the theme of corruption in politics and business, Pierre Lecoc, president of Energy Automative Systems said “power and having, which in our day is essentially materialised by money, are two of the three temptations put to Christ by the Evil one after forty days in the desert”. The temptation to overstep the rules, to falsify, to abuse trust is ever present in affairs of business and politics. One alibi too often used is to blame a system of external forces which influence behaviour. But behind every decision there is always a person who, alone with his or her conscience, decides to say yes or no to the temptation. “In every age - said Lecoc - a part of us dreams of finding the means to escape the strict rules of competition. Corruption in all its forms is the expression of this attitude. But in every age and place men and women have had the courage to say no and to reject the temptation often at a high price ”.
The subject for reflection on the first day of the Conference was the social responsibility of the executive to fight poverty on the basis of indications offered by José Ignacio Mariscal Torroella, from Mexico, president of Marhnos. He proposed concrete gestures already used in his country to solve the problem of food distribution and start adequate educational systems, particularly support for popular savings and micro-credit in the context of popular funding and economy of solidarity. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 6/3/2004 - Righe 59; Parole 815)
