Catholic Business

More good stuff on the encyclical

Zenit is providing excellent coverage and commentary on Caritas in Veritate.  See in particular:

The Pope's July 8 audience, reflecting on the encyclical and summarizing its key themes.

Insightful commentaries by Fr. Schall, Stratford Caldecott, Sam Gregg, and Gabriel Martinez on the encyclical.

Fr. Sirico on Caritas in Veritate in the Wall Street Journal

Fr. Robert Sirico, President of the Acton Institute writes about Caritas in Veritate in today's Wall Street Journal:

In his much anticipated third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth), Pope Benedict XVI does not focus on specific systems of economics -- he is not attempting to shore up anyone's political agenda. He is rather concerned with morality and the theological foundation of culture. The context is of course a global economic crisis -- a crisis that's taken place in a moral vacuum, where the love of truth has been abandoned in favor of a crude materialism. The pope urges that this crisis become "an opportunity for discernment, in which to shape a new vision for the future."

Read the rest here.

The Economy of Communion in action

Mundell & Associates is part of the Economy of Communion.  John Mundell was a guest lecturer in one of my classes this fall, and is participating in an interesting exchange about reciprocity in the marketplace on an earlier post in this blog.

Indiana firm can claim a papal thumbs-up from new social encyclical

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR. on Jul. 07, 2009
Rome

Though the Vatican typically is loathe to put the pope in the position of endorsing a commercial product, in effect a papal thumbs-up is precisely what Mundell & Associates, an environmental consulting firm in Indianapolis, Indiana, can claim from Caritas in Veritate, Benedict XVI’s new social encyclical.

Founded in 1995, Mundell & Associates is a 20-person firm specializing in environmental clean-up and design; for example, it’s currently helping Ball State University convert its entire campus to geothermal energy. Directed by a Catholic couple, Mundell & Associates is also part of the “economy of communion” network of businesses linked to the Focolare movement.

The “economy of communion” was cited by Benedict XVI as a promising form of intermediate activity between for-profit business and classic non-profit institutions, rupturing what the pope called an “exclusively binary model of market-plus-state” which is “corrosive of society.”

Read the rest here.

Brief overview of the encyclical

In an interview with Zenit, I gave a brief overview of Caritas in Veritate:

WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 7, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's new encyclical is not pretending to solve the worldwide financial crisis, but it points the way for building a solid economy through Christian virtue, says a business ethicist.

Andrew Abela is a marketing professor and chair of Catholic University of America's department of business and economics. He is currently working on a "catechism" for business leaders, applying principles of Catholic social teaching to questions of business ethics.

In this interview with ZENIT, Abela comments on Benedict XVI's latest encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate," which was released to the public today.

ZENIT: Could you give a "businessman's" summary of this encyclical? What are the main points for business leaders today?

Abela: A main point is that the economy is not a moral-free zone: both honesty and generosity are absolutely required if the market is to work and to serve the common good.  

Another point is that there is room for solidarity and generosity within the market, and that these in fact will make the market more effective by strengthening trust.  

Lastly, the encyclical points out that the most important aspect of development is spiritual development, and that openness to life "is at the center of true development" (No. 28).

(Read the rest here.)

Caritas in Veritate is published

The new encyclical is here.

Reciprocity and the Economy of Communion

Dr. Stefano Zamagni is a contributor to the Economy of Communion project, and was an advisor to Pope Benedict on the forthcoming encyclical Caritas in Veritate.  

In a book of readings, The Economy of Communion (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2002), Dr. Zamagni has a thoughtful paper entitled "On the Foundation and Meaning of the 'Economy of Communion' experience." 

In this paper, Dr. Zamagni makes distinctions between altruism and reciprocity, and between reciprocity and exchange of equivalents (e.g. market exchange). Why do these matter?  In our current society, we tend to categorize every transfer of value as either altruism or market exchange.  The Economy of Communion is trying to create a space for a third kind of transfer of value: reciprocity.

The altruist gives because he sees the recipient as helpless, and this can be perceived as demeaning to the other, when "it creates dependency in the one who receives" (p. 132). Market exchange requires an exact equivalence between what is exchanged--i.e. a fair price should be charged/paid for whatever is bought/sold.  

Reciprocity, by contrast, recognizes that both the giver and the receiver are putting something into the relationship, even if their contributions are wildly "unequal." 

Dr. Amy Uelmen of Fordham Law School, a consultant to the Economy of Communion project, illustrates this idea of reciprocity in a recent article, with the words of Archbishop Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, during the Pope's recent trip to Africa, who was responding to a journalist's question about how the West should help Africa:

You asked how the West can ‘help’ Africa. We’re not interested in ‘help’ in that sense [that] we are exclusively the receivers of your generosity. We’re interested in a new kind of relationship, in which all of us, as equals, work out the right way forward.

The Economy of Communion says that it is possible for one to sometimes pay more than the market value of someone's work, or to ask for less than the market price for your goods, for the purpose of promoting the common good.  While such an exchange will be something other than a market exchange, it does not make you an altruist, because the beneficiary of such an exchange is also contributing something (strengthening a relationship, for example), even if that contribution is not strictly 'equal' in value.  

Is this naive?  Can such a company stay in business?  Well, there are over 700 such companies world wide right now, operating in this way.  Back to Dr. Zamagni: 

The Economy of Communion says to us that the market, under a very precise condition, can become an instrument which can reinforce social ties, favoring both the promotion of practices of wealth distribution through its mechanisms ... and the creation of an economic space in which it is possible to regenerate those values (such as trust, sympathy, benevolence on which the existence of the market itself depends (p. 134).

...

The Economy of Communion offers a practical demonstration that it is possible to give without losing and take without taking away (p. 139-40).

This kind of thinking--and acting--is exactly the kind of creativity and originality that papal encyclicals are supposed to inspire (rather than misguided attempts to force fit Church teaching into pre-existing theories). I do hope that the Holy Father has indeed chosen to refer to the Economy of Communion project in his new encyclical, because that will give the project the wider attention it deserves.

Synthesis is the key

John Allen proposes that the key to reading Pope Benedict's next encyclical is the idea of "synthesis."  Avoiding false dichotomies, the encyclical will propose that we need personal conversion and social reform, pro-life and peace and justice commitments, and evangelization and social justice.

Allow the encyclical to challenge you

From an interview with Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus:

Too many people, he said, already are predicting that the encyclical will validate their ideas about the economy, finance, business practices and development aid.

Catholics need to allow the encyclical to challenge them to act with more integrity, more morality and greater charity, Anderson said.

"I hope it is going to lead to a moral reassessment and open the door to more ethical values in our business and economy," he said.

Well said!

Full article here. 

More on the Economy of Communion project

I mentioned yesterday that I thought that it was noteworthy that Prof. Zamagni was going to be part of the press conference announcing the new encyclical (the only lay person mentioned in the press release) because of his association with the Economy of Communion project.  

The Economy of Communion project, to my mind, is exactly the kind of original and creative response to Catholic Social Teaching that we should be looking for.  It was started by Chiara Lubich, on May 29, 1991, just 28 days after Pope John Paul II's encyclical Centesimus Annus was published.  It is arguably one of the most authentic fruits of that encyclical, consisting as it does of businesses that compete in the free market while promoting a broader distribution of wealth and skills--"combining efficiency and solidarity."

Read more about the Economy of Communion project and its history.  Currently there are over 700 businesses worldwide operating according to Economy of Communion principles. 

A level of thinking above

"The encyclical's message is not somewhere on the spectrum of left, center, and right," he said. "Rather, it is on a level of thinking above this."

Dr. Robert Moynihan of Inside the Vatican magazine, in his latest Newsflash, quotes a theologian who is familiar with the contents on the forthcoming encyclical, making the point that I have tried to make earlier: you should not try to stuff Catholic Social Teaching into the narrow categories of Left or Right (or Center).

Here's the story:

This morning, I met Vatican journalist Angela Ambrogetti just before 8 a.m. in front of the Holy Office and told her the bad news.
I had scheduled an interview for 9 a.m. with a leading Church theologian to discuss the upcoming social encyclical.
The theologian at first had agreed to the appointment, but later decided otherwise.
"He has canceled the interview," I said to Angela. "What do you want to do? We can either forget about it... or go anyway..."
"Andiamo," Angela said immediately. "Why not? A journalist has to insist..."
So we drove through the morning traffic and reached our destination.
At the entrance, the secretary called the theologian. We waited. Would he send us away without seeing us?
"He will see you in 10 minutes," she said.
"You see?" Angela said.
Ten minutes later we began to discuss the theological background of the upcoming encyclical, which the Vatican announced today will be made public at a press conference of July 7 — just before US President Barack Obama arrives in Rome.
The theologian clearly knew the encyclical's contents well.
The encyclical "does not condemn free enterprise," he said, but calls for "an ethic in free enterprise" — an "ethical capitalism," he said.
The encyclical is written on a more profound level than most treatises on social and economic problems, he said. 
"The encyclical's message is not somewhere on the spectrum of left, center, and right," he said. "Rather, it is on a level of thinking above this.