Pope Francis on Wednesday, sent a message to Argentina’s Christian Association of Business Executives (ACDE) on the occasion of its 24th annual meeting on the theme: “Towards a more humane capitalism.”
In his message, send via video, the Holy Father emphasized the important role of transparency in investment and creating employment. He urged the business leaders to “be creative and bold” as they invest in the common good for a better economy.
Following is a text of the Holy Father’s message, provided by the Vatican:
Dear brothers and sisters,
I have here the program for your meeting, and I cannot hide the joy I felt a short time ago in signing for the heroic virtue of Enrique Shaw. I ask him to accompany you in this meeting, and that he may help you move forward.
The Christian vision of the economy and of society, which is different from the pagan vision, or the ideological vision, is Christian and was born from the message of Jesus, from the beatitudes, from Matthew 25: from there the vision is born. And everyone must participate in building a community that is fair, economically and socially, for all: trade unionists and entrepreneurs, workers and managers. We must follow the path of the social economy. Let us be realistic, the economy lately, in the last decades, has generated finances, and finances carry the risk of ending up like the chain of Saint Anthony: we believe there is a lot and in the end, we find there is nothing. An inflation of media affairs, I am simplifying: it is much more complex. Return to the economy of what is tangible, not to lose sight of the real. And what is real is production, the work of all, that there should be no lack of work, families, the homeland, society. The real. In a society where there is a very large margin of poverty, you have to ask yourself how the economy is doing, whether it is fair, whether it is social, or whether it is simply pursuing personal interests. The economy is social.
And in creating employment, the power of the PIME is important, because creativity always comes from the ground up. Therefore, proceed towards the common good, with the gesture of creating employment. It is a challenge, your meeting is a challenge to creativity. Creating work, when it is the moment of the pandemic, which has brought us to this, to a lack of work.
Investing in the common good, not hiding money in tax havens. Investing. Investment means giving life, creating, it is creative. Knowing how to invest, not to hide. One hides when one’s conscience is not clear or when one is angry. We all know what is said in the countryside when the cow does not give milk: “What happened to the cow, why is she so angry that she is ‘hiding’ the milk?”. When we hide it is because something is going wrong. Clarity, transparency, and production. Invest. And gradually build social trust. It is very difficult to build without social trust. Sometimes these big deals between major companies or major investors or important people: they are all around the table, after hours they make an agreement, they sign it, and while they are toasting the one who seated makes a deal under the table with the one next to him. No, with trust, and never betray trust.
I hope this meeting will be useful to you for all this. May God bless you, may the Virgin protect you, be creative, be bold, and please pray for me too. Thank you.
© Libreria Editrice Vatican
