Pope addresses Rome’s businessmen

(March 18, 2010) Only by avoiding speculation and amassing wealth for self can businesses have long life; and for this to happen, a system of strong and positive relationships with employees and others in the business sector must be created. Pope Benedict XVI made the remark to a union of industrialists and businesses of Rome, which consists of mainly medium and small sized firms. “The success of Italian business, especially in certain regions,” the Pope observed, “has always been marked by the importance given to the network of relationships that businesses have managed to build with workers and with other business entities through bonds of cooperation and mutual trust.'' “A firm can be vital and produce social wealth if entrepreneurs and managers are guided by a farsightedness that chooses long-term investment against speculative profit, and that promotes innovation rather than thinks of accumulating wealth only for self. Referring to his encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate” (“Charity in Truth”), Pope Benedict observed that growing joblessness, especially among young people, economic impoverishment of many workers and emergence of new forms of slavery call for access to decent work for all as a prime objective. The Pope said that the Church that also has the same objective believes that a job serves the good of man, family and society and is the source of freedom and responsibility. In order to achieve these goals, the Pope said, businessmen are particularly encouraged to join other social entities in serving society and the common good.