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Pope Francis discourse
at the public assembly of confederation of industry
Paul VI Hall – Monday, 12 September 2022
“The life of entrepreneurs in the Church has not always been easy”.
Dear entrepreneurs,
I thank the President for his greeting and introduction. I am pleased to be able to meet you and, through you, to address the world of entrepreneurs, who are an essential component of building the common good, they are a primary engine of development and prosperity.
This time is not an easy time, for you and for everyone. The business world is also suffering a lot. The pandemic has put a strain on many productive activities, the entire economic system has been wounded. And now the war in Ukraine has been added with the ensuing energy crisis. In these crises the good entrepreneur, who has the responsibility of his company, of the jobs, who feels the uncertainties and risks on himself also suffers. In the market there are “mercenary” entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs similar to the Good Shepherd (cf. Jn 10:11-18), who suffer the same suffering as their workers, who do not flee from the many wolves that revolve around. People know how to recognize good entrepreneurs. We also saw it recently, at the death of Alberto Balocco (editor note: killed by lightning): the whole business and civil community was saddened and expressed esteem and gratitude.
The Church, from the beginning, has also welcomed merchants, precursors of modern entrepreneurs, into her bosom. In the Bible and in the Gospels we speak of work, of trade, and among the parables there are those that speak of coins, of landowners, of administrators, of precious pearls purchased. The merciful father in Luke’s Gospel (cf. 15:11-32) is shown to us as a wealthy man, a landowner. The Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:30-35) could have been a merchant: it is he who takes care of the robbed and wounded man, and then entrusts him to another entrepreneur, a hotelier. The “two denarii” that the Samaritan anticipates to the hotelier are very important: in the Gospel there are not only the thirty denarii of Judas; not only those. In fact, the same money can be used, yesterday as today, to betray and sell a friend or to save a victim. We see it every day, when the money of Judas and those of the Good Samaritan coexist in the same markets, in the same stock exchanges, in the same squares. The economy grows and becomes human when the money of the Samaritans becomes more numerous than that of Judas.
But the life of entrepreneurs in the Church has not always been easy. The harsh words that Jesus uses towards the rich and wealthy, those on the camel and the eye of the needle (Mt 19:23-24 – it is hard for someone rich to enter the kingdom of heaven . . . it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven.’), have sometimes been extended too quickly to every entrepreneur and every merchant, assimilated to those sellers whom Jesus drove out of the temple (Mt 21:12-13 – Jesus then went into the Temple and drove out all those who were selling and buying there; he upset the tables of the money-changers and the seats of the dove-sellers. He said to them, ‘According to scripture, my house will be called a house of prayer; but you are turning it into a bandits’ den.’). In reality, one can be a merchant, an entrepreneur, and a follower of Christ, an inhabitant of his Kingdom. The question then becomes: what are the conditions for an entrepreneur to enter the kingdom of heaven? And I would like to point out a few of them. It’s not easy…
The first is sharing. Wealth, on the one hand, helps a lot in life; but it is also true that it often complicates it: not only because it can become an idol and a ruthless master who takes his whole life day after day. It also complicates it because wealth calls for responsibility: once I have goods, I have the responsibility to make them bear fruit, not to disperse them, to use them for the common good. Then wealth creates envy, slander, not infrequently violence and wickedness around it. Jesus tells us that it is very difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. Difficult, yes, but not impossible (cf. Mt 19:26). And in fact we know of wealthy people who were part of the first community of Jesus, for example Zacchaeus of Jericho, Joseph of Arimathea, or some women who supported the apostles with their goods. In the first communities there were non-poor women and men; and in the Church there have always been wealthy people who have followed the Gospel in an exemplary way: among them also entrepreneurs, bankers, economists, such as Blessed Giuseppe Toniolo and Giuseppe Tovini. To enter the kingdom of heaven, not everyone is asked to undress like the merchant Francis of Assisi; some who possess riches are asked to share them. Sharing is another name for evangelical poverty. And in fact the other great economic image that we find in the New Testament is the communion of goods narrated in the Acts of the Apostles: “The multitude of those who had become believers had one heart and one soul […], among them everything was common […]. None of them was in need” (4:32-34).
How can we live this evangelical spirit of sharing today?
The forms are different, and each entrepreneur can find his own, according to his personality and creativity. One form of sharing is philanthropy, that is, giving to the community, in various ways. And here I want to thank you for your concrete support to the Ukrainian people, especially to displaced children, so that they can go to school; Thank you! But very important is that modality that in the modern world and in democracies are taxes and levies, a form of sharing often does not happen. The fiscal pact is at the heart of the social pact. Taxes are also a form of sharing wealth, so that it becomes common goods, public goods: school, health, rights, care, science, culture, heritage. Of course, taxes must be fair, equitable, fixed on the basis of the ability to pay of each one, as stated in the Italian Constitution (cf. Article 53). The tax system and administration must be efficient and not corrupt. But taxes should not be regarded as usurpation. They are a high form of sharing of goods, they are the heart of the social pact.
Another way of sharing is the creation of work, work for everyone, especially for young people. Young people need your trust, and you need young people, because companies without young people lose innovation, energy and enthusiasm. Work has always been a form of communion of wealth: by hiring people you are already distributing your goods, you are already creating shared wealth. Every new job created is a slice of wealth shared dynamically. Here too lies the centrality of work in the economy and its great dignity. Today technology risks making us forget this great truth, but if the new capitalism creates wealth without creating work, this great good function of wealth goes into crisis. And speaking of young people: when I meet the rulers, many people tell me: “The problem of my country is that young people go outside, because they have no chance”. Creating jobs is a challenge and some countries are in crisis because of this lack. I ask you this favor: that here, in this country, thanks to your initiative, to your courage, there may be jobs, especially for young people.
The model of social order to be questioned – the demographic winter
However, the problem of labour cannot be solved if it remains anchored within the confines of the labour market alone: it is the model of social order to be questioned. What model of social order? And here we touch on the question of falling birth rates. The falling birth rate, combined with the rapid ageing of the population, is aggravating the situation for entrepreneurs, but also for the economy in general: the supply of workers decreases and the pension expenditure borne by public finances increases. It is urgent to support families and the birth rate in practice. We must work on this, to get out as soon as possible from the demographic winter in which Italy and other countries live. It is a bad demographic winter, which goes against us and prevents us from this ability to grow. Today having children is a question, I would say, patriotic, also to bring the country forward.
Still on the subject of the birth rate: sometimes, a woman who is employed here or works there, is afraid to get pregnant, because there is a reality – I do not say among you – but there is a reality that as soon as you begin to see the belly, they chase it away. “No, no, you can’t get pregnant.” Please, this is a problem of working women: study it, see how to do so that a pregnant woman can move forward, both with the child she is expecting and with work. ~
The reality of immigration
And still on the subject of work, there is another theme to highlight. Italy has a strong community and territorial vocation: work has always been considered within a broader social pact, where the company is an integral part of the community. The territory lives of the company and the company draws lymph from the resources of proximity, contributing substantially to the well-being of the places where it is located. In this regard, it should be emphasized the positive role that companies play on the reality of immigration, favoring constructive integration and enhancing skills essential for the survival of the company in the current context. At the same time, it is necessary to strongly reiterate the “no” to all forms of exploitation of persons and negligence in their safety.
The problem of migrants: the migrant must be welcomed, accompanied, supported and integrated, and the way to integrate it is work. But if the migrant is rejected or simply used as a laborer without rights, this is a great injustice and also hurts his own country.
I also like to remember that the entrepreneur himself is a worker. And that’s nice eh!
He does not live on annuity; the true entrepreneur lives by work, lives working, and remains an entrepreneur as long as he works. The good entrepreneur knows the workers because he knows the work. Many of you are artisan entrepreneurs, who share the same daily effort and beauty of employees. One of the serious crises of our time is the loss of contact of entrepreneurs with work: growing up, becoming older, life spends in offices, meetings, travels, conferences, and no longer attend workshops and factories. You forget the “smell” of work. It’s ugly. It is as it happens to us priests and bishops, when we forget the smell of the sheep, we are no longer shepherds, we are officials. You forget the smell of work, you no longer recognize the products with your eyes closed by touching them; and when an entrepreneur no longer touches his products, he loses contact with the life of his enterprise, and often his economic decline also begins.
Contact, closeness, which is God’s style: to be close.
Creating jobs then generates a certain equality in your businesses and in society.
It is true that hierarchy exists in enterprises, it is true that there are different functions and wages, but wages must not be too different. Today the share of value that goes to work is too small, especially if we compare it with that which goes to financial rents and salaries of top managers. If the gap between the highest and lowest salaries becomes too wide, the business community gets sick, and soon society gets sick. Adriano Olivetti, a great colleague of yours of the last century, had established a limit on the distance between the highest and lowest salaries, because he knew that when wages and salaries are too different, the sense of belonging to a common destiny is lost in the corporate community, empathy and solidarity between everyone is not created; and so, in the face of a crisis, the working community does not respond as it could respond, with serious consequences for everyone. The value you create depends on each and every one: it also depends on your creativity, talent and innovation, it also depends on the cooperation of all, on the daily work of all. Because if it is true that every worker depends on his entrepreneurs and managers, it is also true that the entrepreneur depends on his workers, on their creativity, on their heart and their soul: we can say that he depends on their spiritual “capital”, of the workers.
Dear friends, the great challenges of our society cannot be overcome without good entrepreneurs, and this is true. I encourage you to feel the urgency of our time, to be protagonists of this change of era. With your creativity and innovation you can create a different economic system, where the protection of the environment is a direct and immediate objective of your economic action. Without new entrepreneurs the earth will not withstand the impact of capitalism, and we will leave the next generations with a planet that is too wounded, perhaps unlivable. What has been done so far is not enough: please help us together to do more.
And I thank you for coming and I wish you all the best for you and for your work. I cordially bless you together with your families. And please, I ask you not to forget to pray for me. Thank you!
