Pope tells business owners: do justice, not just charity

Published: March 8, 2006 | 3702nd good news item since 2003

Business owners must avoid every form of worker exploitation, and they must adhere to the church’s teachings about social justice in the workplace, Pope Benedict XVI told a group of Italian entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Upholding the importance of people in the workplace and in the world of business and respecting their needs and talents are values that “often risk not being pursued by business owners who lack solid moral inspiration,” especially in the current climate of “economic difficulties,” he said.

The pope also praised an initiative by a group of young entrepreneurs to meld their business acumen with Catholic Social Teaching.

Pope Benedict made his comments during an audience at the Vatican with some 8,000 members of Italy’s Union of Christian Entrepreneurs and Business Executives.

Citing his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (“God Is Love”), the pope told his audience that justice and charity are “two inseparable facets of a Christian’s social duty” and that the lay faithful must work for a just ordering of society.

He said the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church is a useful and educational tool for all people who “intend to let themselves be guided by the Gospel in their professional and work-related activities.”

So as to better adhere to what the church teaches about social justice in the workplace, it is crucial that business owners “nurture and renew” their Christian formation and education, the pope said.

Published in Economics and Faith
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