Monsignor Denis O'Callaghan, D.D., D.C.L.

A Global Business Ethic.

Pope Benedict’s recent Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate focussed on global social justice at the same time that some of the great world powers, the members of G8, were meeting in crisis management. The Pope had some very relevant points to make on that same G8 agenda. Similar points had been made by his recent predecessors in spelling out the Christian meaning of social justice under the motivation of the Gospel.

While world leaders were dealing with social justice as a matter of expediency, as the way to peace, stability and security, the teaching of the Church promoted social justice as a matter of principle with a deeper level of motivation for Christians rather than “charity” hand-outs. In a word we owe all humanity recognition of their rights in justice. That justice is a true reflection of that proactive love for all God’s family on earth as Jesus taught.

Back over fifty years ago John XXIII (“The Good Pope John”) nailed the Church’s colours to the mast in a clarion call for international social justice. He declared that the right of every human person on God’s earth to sufficient sustenance for life takes priority over the right to private property which had run out of control. He was then dubbed the “Communist Pope”! That challenging teaching on social justice, which the wealthy West found so uncomfortable, was spelled out in The Second Vatican Council and in various declarations of Paul VI and John Paul II.

In the short press reviews of Pope Benedict’s recent Encyclical Letter one had the feeling that journalists saw little of interest in it. However, by coincidence with that same Encyclical, Professor Amartya Sen of Harvard University addressed a representative gathering in Trinity College Dublin under the title “On Global Confusion”. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics he certainly got a hearing. What he had to say might well have reflected Church teaching on international social justice over recent years. Professor Sen stated that in face of the recent economic crisis Governments had made gigantic efforts to shore up capitalism as we know it but “the patient seemed resistant to recovery”. In his view free-market capitalism had run its course to the point of meltdown. There was now need for a New Capitalism incorporating an “ethic of sharing”. The free market with its profit motive cannot be allowed to rule across the board. Otherwise irresponsibility rules.

In other words the laissez-faire system of economics has shown how vulnerable this system is to greed. Calling a spade a spade in regard to the model of capitalism favoured as sacrosanct by the West is strange language for an economist. It is certainly a new dialect to hear a world renowned economist set out his stall on a demand for ethics as a ruling factor. He even uses the term “greed” without apology! Have we not seen it here in Ireland? The greed of bankers, the greed of developers, the greed of governments, the greed of those on inflated salaries. No one called STOP to the gravy train of the Celtic Tiger once it was serving their own interests. The Gospel parable of building house on sand rather than rock surely applied.

What Professor Amartya Sen calls for is a rethink and a new start on a more responsible road to the future. Is it possible that the Ten Commandments will again recover their relevance? Perhaps they will rein in any effort to restart the Celtic Tiger on its old highway. We have seen the downside of fuelling the vehicle with those Capital or Deadly Sins “Pride, Avarice, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy and Sloth” - self-satisfaction in our comfort zone.

Sunday, 19^th July, 2009.

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