Business morality is vital

In modern society where the lay person plays a role in the Church unparalleled in recent centuries, the Church would do well to reflect on the place of the large percentage of laity who spend much of their time in the business world.

Millions of people have been adversely affected across the globe in a situation that is as much a matter of the morality of business as it is the systemic failure which led to the collapse of major financial institutions.

As Catholics we are called to understand that enterprise plays an important role in improving the world through the provision of goods and services that businesses make possible. The late Pope John Paul II affirmed that we are each called to work of some sort as part of earth existence. Through our work we share in God’s love and co-create with him as participants in the ongoing creation and redemption in the world. Through enterprise, such virtues such as self-discipline, persistence and creativity can be exercised in the secular realm, helping us orient our work to the bigger picture that is our faith.

More than ever we need to affirm the role of the entrepreneur as part of our overall affirmation of the role of the laity. If we lose sight of the virtues and responsibilities that come with a life in business, we risk missing the ethical foundations of a sound economy and the necessity of calling the faithful to a life of Catholic fidelity in their professional endeavours.

Garreth Bloor, Cape Town