Can business and ethics successfully co-exist? In what ways can the business world
implement the principles of Pope Benedict’s latest encyclical in their workplaces?
And, how can the financial world, especially banks, combine the logic of profitability
with moral integrity in investments?
These were just some of the many points
under discussion at the international summit on business ethics held in the Vatican
this month that was attended by dozens of leaders of business leaders of global institutions.
One of those attending the conference was Arsenio Rodriguez, Executive Coordinator
of the Alliance for a new Humanity, an international network of people aiming to build
a just, peaceful and sustainable world, who spoke to Susy Hodges:
Rodriguez
says he fears that the 2008 global financial crisis "is not enough" to make people
mend their ways and realise "we are one human family and that we need to behave differently." Asked
whether profotability and ethics can happily co-exist, Rodriguez says they can co-exist
as "making money is not the objective of a business, the objective of a business is
to create wellbeing, social wellbeing, through money, money is energy so the more
you create profits and you invest these profits in creating social capital" the better
it is.
But as he goes on to warn, if you "hoard those profits" or go to
spend them, say, at Las Vegas, that is "totally selfish." How, he asks, "can you
have more than you need while others have nothing? ... "to share is the greatest treasure
we can have... and love grows when you share, it is contrary to money...." Listen
to the full interview: