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?
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.

How are business, the common good, and the Catholic view of
“greater meaning in life” related to each other?

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 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

“The crisis in the financial sector was in essence a collapse of trust in economic institutions.”
Catholic Bishops of England and Wales

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

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

If you judge that all four elements of the moral ecology of markets are well-structured, you will judge the economy to be just.

Requires both
1) Moral judgments:
What should happen?
2) Empirical judgments:
What will happen if we try achieve “what should happen”?

 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

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

“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 remain unsatisfied.” not to allow fundamental human needs to
John Paul II, Centesimus, p. 67

Gleaning Laws

 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

 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

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 . . . 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 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

 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

 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 — 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

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

“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