Business, source of hope

“Business, source of hope” is the theme of the XXIX UNIAPAC World Congress taking place in the French city of Lyon from 31 March to 1 April.

Some 2000 Chief Executives from all over the world gather to exchange and debate on the role of business in a world which has lost hope.

Participating in the Congress together with Christian Business Leaders are representatives of the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace will give a keynote address during the welcome, and Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, will address participants in the afternoon, and celebrate Mass at Lyon Cathedral when the event comes to a close.

Before setting off to Lyon, Cardinal Turkson spoke to Linda Bordoni about UNIAPC, its history and its aims.

First of all he illustrated his own involvement in the Congress as President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace as his Dicastery has to do with the social doctrine of the Church.

He says the Christian Doctrine of the Church developed as a movement of the Church and as a form of Christian witness to bear witness to the faith and charity of Christ.

He explained that UNIAPAC was born in 1931as “Conférences Internationales des Associations de Patrons Catholiques'', between federations of Dutch, Belgian and French Catholic Employers (and with observers from Italy, Germany and Czechoslovakia), on the occasion of the 40 th anniversary of the Encyclical “Rerum Novarum” in Rome.

It later enlarged to other European countries and to Latin-American Countries and changed its first name for, in French, “UN ion I nternationale des A ssociations PA tronales C atholiques', with the initials UNIAPAC.

Cardinal Turkson says that today UNIAPAC has become an ecumenical association under the new denomination ''International Christian Union of Business Executives'' and it has gained many members not only in Europe, but also in Asia and in Africa.

Today, UNIAPAC welcomes member associations and individual members or companies worldwide. It gathers more than 26 Associations, with more than 30 000 members.

UNIAPAC is today recognized by such international organizations as FAO, the Council of Europe, the International Labour Organization, the EU, and the UN Conference on Trade and Development, etc.

The key moment in the life of UNIAPAC has always been the World Congress that gathers hundreds of committed business executives from all continents for what its manifesto describes as “a rich and intense time of fraternal exchange”.

This Congress now takes place every three years.

Speaking of this year’s theme, Cardinal Turkson says that one of the pillars of the Union is to reaffirm the dimension of ethics in business.

He points out that the current global financial crisis has a lot to do with a lack of ethics and morality within the financial world.

What UNIAPAC wants to do, is to “re-introduce ethical considerations into business, to make ethics the rudder of business and enterprise. This is where the expression of hope derives”.

Cardinal Turkson stresses the fact that finance must be used as a tool and not considered as an end.

He also looks back to Pope Benedict’s encyclical, “Caritas In Veritate” and to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace’s own document entitled “Towards reforming the international financial and monetary systems in the context of global public authority, released in October 2011 in occasion of the G 20 meeting.

In it, Cardinal Turkson says, the Council calls for a radical reform of the world's financial and monetary systems. It also proposes the creation of a global political authority to manage the economy and a new world economic order based on ethics.
He says behaviors are partly to blame for the current global financial downturn, including selfishness and collective greed and that world economics needs an ethic of solidarity among rich and poor nations.

The Cardinal also mentions the failed economic system of Communism and the failings of un-reigned neo-liberalism that looks exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems.

And Cardinal Turkson speaks of the challenges of globalization and mobility and of the consequent need for a re-thinking of the power of legislation of the Sovereignties of States and the power of multi-national organizations.

Within the context of globalization, he says, speaking of environmental issues for example, a single state cannot legislate on issues that have to do with common good. So we must think of protocol entities that will think about all this and legislate on it. We must think of the possibility of a public authority of universal competence.

Some, he says, consider this utopian, some have rejected it, but many have joined the Pontifical Council in considering the need for a new body to legislate on common good.

Many businessmen – he says – today proclaim their pride in being Catholic and participate actively in reflecting on new ways of doing business, new ways of doing finance and engaging in economic activities.

Listen to the interview…