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Business, Faith,
and the
Common Good
Business as a Vocation
Business is a vocation,
and a noble vocation,
provided that those engaged in it see
themselves challenged
by a greater meaning in life. . .
Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium, 203
Business as a Vocation
. . . this will enable them truly
to serve the common good
by striving to increase
the goods of this world
and to make them
more accessible to all.
Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium, 203
What the Common Good Is Not
“The sum total of
the good of all individuals”
Two problems:
Overly individualistic
Overlooks the marginalized
What Is the Common Good?
Two dimensions:
1) The common conditions of
social life
2) The attainment of the good
life by all, at least to a
minimum degree
Virgil Michel, O.S.B.
The Question
How are business,
the common good,
and the Catholic view of
“greater meaning in life”
related to each other?
The plan for this lecture
1. Four questions everyone answers
in relating economic activity
to “greater meaning in life”
2. How the Catholic tradition
answers those questions
The Moral Ecology of Markets
1. Laws structuring markets
2. The provision of essential
goods & services
3. The morality of persons &
organizations
4. Civil society
Laws Structuring Markets
Laws limit what is allowed
in economic life
Critics complain about
“government regulation”
but governments define markets
by determining their rules.
Three Advantages
1. We can’t live without
markets.
2. There are no “free”
markets.
3. Governments don’t
“intervene” in markets.
The Moral Ecology of Markets
1. Laws structuring markets
2. The provision of essential
goods & services
Essential Goods and Services
The Moral Ecology of Markets
1. Laws structuring markets
2. The provision of essential
goods & services
3. The morality of persons &
organizations
Morality and Markets
“The crisis in the financial
sector was in essence a
collapse of trust in
economic institutions.”
Catholic Bishops of England and Wales
Firms Fined by the SEC
Citigroup
Commonwealth
Advisors
Goldman Sachs
J.P. Morgan
Wachovia Capital
Charles Schwab
American Home
Mortgage
ICP Asset
Management
Mizuho Securities
Wells Fargo
UBS Securities
Bank Atlantic
Bank of America
Capital One
KCAP Financial
Commonwealth
Bankshares
Oppenheimer
State Street
TD Ameritrade
Stifel, Nicolaus
Credit Suisse
Securities
Franklin Bank
Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac
IndyMac Bancorp
New Century
Option One
Mortgage Corp
Bear Stearns
Morgan Keegan
The Moral Ecology of Markets
1. Laws structuring markets
2. The provision of essential
goods & services
3. The morality of persons &
organizations
4. Civil society
Civil Society
The Moral Ecology of Markets
1. Laws structuring markets
2. The provision of essential
goods & services
3. The morality of persons &
organizations
4. Civil society
A Just Economy?
If you judge that
all four elements
of the moral ecology of markets
are well-structured,
you will judge the economy
to be just.
How to Decide?
Requires both
1) Moral judgments:
What should happen?
2) Empirical judgments:
What will happen if we try achieve “what
should happen”?
Catholic Social Thought
Consider the history of Christian
perspectives on economic life.
What does that history mean for
economic life today?
The moral ecology of
markets
1. Juridical framework for markets
“The market should be appropriately
controlled by the forces of society and
by the State, so as to guarantee that the
basic needs of the whole society are
satisfied.”
John Paul II, Centesimus annus, #68
Market as Cultural Creation
It must be remembered that the market
does not exist in the pure state. It is shaped
by the cultural configurations which define it
and give it direction.
Benedict XVI, Caritas in veritate, 36
Social Structures & Sin
“The Church's wisdom has always
pointed to the presence of original
sin in social conditions and in the
structure of society.”
Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in veritate, 34
The moral ecology of
markets
2. Communal provision of essential
goods and services
“It is a strict duty of justice and truth not
to allow fundamental human needs to
remain unsatisfied.”
John Paul II, Centesimus, p. 67
Gleaning Laws
The Early Church
The earth belongs to all, and not simply to
the rich.
When you give to the poor man, you are
paying back, therefore, your debt; you are
not giving gratuitously what you do not
owe.
- Ambrose of Milan
Property Ownership
The first principle of the whole ethical and
social order:
The principle of the Common Use of Goods
Also know as the “Universal Destination of
Goods” or the “Social Mortgage” on property
- John Paul II
Leave It to Private Charity?
This state of things was quite satisfactory to the
wealthy, who looked upon it as the consequence
of inevitable and natural economic laws, and who,
therefore, were content to abandon to charity
alone the full care of relieving the unfortunate, as
though it were the task of charity to make amends
for the open violation of justice, a violation not
merely tolerated, but sanctioned at times by
legislators.
Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo anno 4
Wages & Work
Wages . . . are still the practical means
whereby the vast majority of people
can have access to those goods which
are intended for common use.
John Paul II, Laborem exercens, #19
The Importance of Wages
The justice of a socioeconomic system . . .
deserves in the final analysis to be evaluated
by the way in which man's work is properly
remunerated in the system.
Pope John Paul II, Laborem exercens, #19
Business Must Serve Work
Ownership of the means of production . . . is
just and legitimate if it serves useful work.
It becomes illegitimate, however, when it is not
utilized or when it serves to impede the work of
others, in an effort to gain a profit which is not
the result of the overall expansion of work and
the wealth of society.
Pope John Paul II, Centesimus annus, 43
The moral ecology of
markets
• 3. The morality of individuals and groups
“All that people do to obtain greater justice,
wider brotherhood, and a more humane
ordering of social relationships has greater
worth than technical advance. For these
advances can supply the material for human
progress, but of themselves alone they can
never actually bring it about.”
Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, #42
The moral ecology of
markets
4. A vibrant civil society
The Subjectivity of Society
The social nature of man is not completely
fulfilled in the State, but is realized in various
intermediary groups, beginning with the
family and including economic, social,
political and cultural groups which stem from
human nature itself and have their own
autonomy, always with a view to the
common good. This is what I have called the
“subjectivity” of society.
Pope John Paul II, Centesimus annus 13 & 46
Love and Justice
“Love — caritas — is an
extraordinary force which leads
people to opt for courageous and
generous engagement in the field of
justice and peace.”
Pope Benedict XVI
A Final Question
How is working to improve institutions
– businesses, government, etc –
related to
“more fundamental” elements
of Christian faith,
like the Nicene Creed?
Improving Social Structures
“This is the institutional path
— we might also call it the political path —
of charity,
no less excellent and effective
than the kind of charity which
encounters the neighbor directly.”
Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in veritate, # 7
Business as a Vocation
“Man's earthly activity, when
inspired and sustained by charity,
contributes to the building of the
universal city of God.”
Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in veritate, # 7
Comments?
Questions?