Martin is the director of the programme in church management at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, in partnership with the University of St. Thomas and other U.S. and international universities. His research focuses on the tradition of Catholic social thought in political and economic questions. Specifically, he studies how the Christian faith over the centuries related to markets, trade and exchange, money and interest, and private property and social justice. The focus is on how to promote principled business leadership for the common good and to overcome poverty by including the poor into the market economy. Martin’s experience as a consultant to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in Rome gives him a unique insight into social and human challenges worldwide.
KEY TAKE-AWAY
- Pope Francis is not anti-business. He believes it can be a noble vocation on condition that the markets in which it functions are not de-coupled from ethics and that its agents are ‘principled entrepreneurs.’
- Good business must be profitable, this is the indication of good business – but profit is not the purpose of good business. The purpose of business is to produce good goods, offer services that really serve, create wealth and employment in good working conditions.
- Over-concentration on profit maximization often results in losing sight of the bigger picture. Business must assume its position within a broader moral order.
- The ten commandments can serve as the foundation for a social market economy that embraces diversity, equity and inclusion.
- Inequity (unjust inequality) is the cause of all social ills.
- Poverty should not be measured quantitively but rather in qualitative terms. In the words of Pope Francis “there is no worse poverty than to be excluded from the dignity of earning one’s own bread.”
