Business and social teaching.

A gathering of Canadian and American Catholic business people and academics involved in economics, management, taxation, and insurance, occured last June 20 at the Royal Trust Tower in Toronto.

The meeting was organized by Andrew Abela, management consultant, who opened the day with a discussion on the purpose of business. According to the present-day business community, the purpose of business is the maximization of profit, limited only by such things as environment, taxes, and the labour unions. This view is morally wrong.

Since Rerum Novarum in 1891, the popes have taught that the interest of the worker, and of the community a business serves, come first. Profit, though essential, should not be the primary consideration. People come before capital. There are other important factors, such as provision of goods and services which are basic societal needs, giving employment, training workers including updating of skills, and acting only with the consent of the owners, which come first.

Corporate persons

Guy Alden emphasized that corporate "persons" (any collection of people organized for a given end) are given legal rights superior to those of real persons in the tax code. The reason for this is because the public and the state ignore the real nature of man.

Man, created in the image and likeness of God, has dignity as a person in a manner which no legal fiction can possess. Man is given self-knowledge and the ability to give of himself, and is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator. Our secular materialistic world regards man merely as human capital, an assembly of skills and brains, which has no rights of conscience.

Professor Roderick Macdonald emphasized that we live with "structures of sin" (Pope John Paul II). These societal structures come from and lead to personal sin. He asked, what are we going to do about it?

He answered that first we must determine what collaboration with these structures is forbidden. Formal cooperation, that is, agreeing with the purpose with which an immoral activity is carried out, is always wrong. Second, material cooperation is cooperation without agreeing with the motive for the action. It is divided into remote (sometimes allowable for sufficient cause) and proximate. Proximate material cooperation, where one cooperates very closely with the action, is as serious as formal cooperation, and is also morally wrong.

The secular world lacks an ultimate foundation for its ethics. As apostolic witnesses, we must offer and practise our ethics which is based on traditional Church teaching and also on a philosophically-based idea of fundamental moral goods. They in return should lead to the greatest good, the "summum bonum," eternal life in the Blessed Trinity. As an aid to practical reasoning in the world of business, we must also respect the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity.

Balancing "moral goods"

Edward Hadas spoke of the fact that balancing the fundamental moral goods is difficult; particularly so because of the rapid rate of societal change. Even when people try to be honest, they find it hard to agree on the proper balancing of moral goods. Our society is selfish and so it is difficult to communicate ideas of generosity, trust, and cooperation, and the idea that efficiency is only a secondary good.

The Catholic view towards economics is positive. Even though it is an imperfect world, goodness and saintliness in its employees should be encouraged in every firm. In economics four things are important:

1) Think for yourself and, when necessary, think differently from the world.

2) There are real conflicts of moral goods.

3) Fight greed and value spiritual poverty

4) Be flexible. Avoid dogmatisms such as utilitarianism, pragmatism, and materialism, which are reductionist philosophies that fail to take into account the true integrity and dignity of man.

Sister Kieran Foley presented the gathering with a beautiful meditation on the paradoxes of the seven last days in the life of Christ and an application of these paradoxes to business life today.

Paul Tomori, in the final address to the symposium, observed that our society is confused about the fundamentals of ethics and how they apply to business. Business should fulfil real needs, not spurious needs created for sheer profit. Businesses which fulfil real needs are and remain stable, because real needs are stable.

Discussion was lively and wide-ranging. The role of government in the economy, and the moral problems of keeping a company afloat, were imaginatively and vigorously debated. Discussion ended with a short-term project of forming an Internet group. This might eventually lead to the foundation of a "Catholic Business School" which would offer a two-year MBA course.

All in all, it was a fascinating and spiritually profitable day on King street. The speakers were: Andrew Abela, Consultant, McKinsey and Co. Toronto; Guy Alden, Revenue Canada; Prof. Roderick Macdonald, U. of Quebec at Montreal; Edward Hadas, Manager, Putnam Investments, London, U.K.; Sr. Kieran Foley, Director, Synergic Systems, Ct., U.S.A; Paul Tomori, Manager, Wesco, Toronto.

John Shea, M.D., is an associate editor of Catholic Insight and a frequent contributor for whom Catholic social teaching is an avid and long-standing interest.