by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
May the Lord hear our prayers as we March for Jesus today, and let’s link our prayers to action.
I invite Catholic business men and women to attend CCSJ’s Workshop on Saturday, July 7, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Assumption Parish Centre to discuss the key issues arising out of Cardinal Peter Turkson’s handbook: Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection.
As our Church in T&T seeks to build the civilisation of love, I urge members of the Catholic business community to join those who have already committed themselves to attend, so that we will have a fruitful discussion at the workshop. Our key speakers will be: Frs Garfield Rochard, Clyde Harvey, and Adolfo Bueno, Opus Dei.
As Christians, as followers of Christ through our baptism, we all have a common vocation to be holy. Striving to follow in the footsteps of Christ is a lifelong process. As well as this common vocation, Christians have more specific vocations and personal vocations and we must strive to discern these.
Blessed Josemaria Escriva (founder of Opus Dei), rightly stated that we will fulfil our vocation to be holy by sanctifying our work, sanctifying ourselves in our work, and sanctifying others through our work.
Cardinal Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (PCJP), launched his 32-page handbook in March 2012 at an assembly of 2,000 Catholic businessmen and women inLyon,France. In it he offers a vision of how the business community can incorporate their faith in their daily life/work.
The document grew out of a seminar sponsored by the John A Ryan Institute at theUniversityofSt Thomasand the PCJP, held in February 2011, called “The Logic of Gift and the Meaning of Business.”
Amidst the global economic crisis, it is noteworthy that the opening sentence in the Executive Summary of the handbook states: “When businesses and market economies function properly and focus on serving the common good, they contribute greatly to the material and even the spiritual well-being of society.”
The handbook recognises that “financial profit is a legitimate aim of business, but not the only one. If financial wealth is not created, it cannot be distributed and organisations cannot be sustained.” Ethically responsible business, it states, is “a vehicle of cultural engagement and can promote “peace and prosperity”. It has “a special role to play in the unfolding of creation.” Through creative work, “people do not just ‘make more’ but ‘become more’.”
Inter alia, the handbook explores the challenges and benefits of globalisation, communication technologies, financialisation and cultural changes; and also the obstacles to serving the common good. The most significant obstacle for a business leader, according to the handbook, is “leading a ‘divided’ life. This split between faith and daily business practice can lead to imbalances and misplaced devotion to worldly success.
“The alternative path of faith-based ‘servant leadership’ provides business leaders with a larger perspective and helps to balance the demands of the business world with those of ethical social principles, illumined for Christians by the Gospel.”
The six practical principles for business (p. 17) and the discernment checklist for business leaders (p. 26) are very useful tools.
The “see, judge, act” methodology used in the handbook, is at the heart of social justice work. The business community and other stakeholders are asked “to SEE the challenges and opportunities in their work; to JUDGE them according to ethical social principles, illumined for Christians by the Gospel; and to ACT as leaders who serve God.”
It is important to note that the document does not seek to dictate policy. It adopts a pastoral approach and seeks to encourage and inspire businessmen and women to think about how they incorporate their faith in their work.
At the heart of any business is the human person and his/her dignity. We must be concerned to promote what Pope Benedict XVI calls “integral human development”, that is, the development of all dimensions of a person and of each person. This can only be promoted in businesses that truly become a “community of persons”. The handbook recalls Blessed John Paul II’s statement that the purpose of business “is not simply to make a profit, but is to be found in its very existence as a community of persons who in various ways are endeavouring to satisfy their basic needs and who form a particular group at the service of the whole of society.”
How often do members of the Catholic business community get an opportunity to discuss such issues? Do come. Ring 299-8945.
