Economic crisis an 'opportunity', pope says
Benedict XVI sees need for development models to be revised
18 March, 15:27
(ANSA) - Vatican City, March 18 - The recent global economic
downturn has offered an opportunity to revise development models
and the way finance is structured, Pope Benedict XVI said on
Thursday.In an audience granted to Rome's Union of Business and Industry, the pope observed that "the current crisis has put the economic and productive systems of many countries to the test.
However, this should be viewed as an opportunity to revise development models and create a new organization of the world of finance".
Benedict then recalled how in his third encyclical, Charity in Truth, issued last year, he had stressed the need to "place the human being at the center of the economy and finance".
He then went on to say that businessmen "need to be encouraged to commit themselves to the service of society and the common good".
Work, the pontiff observed, "is an asset for man, for the family and for society, as well as a source of freedom and responsibility.
Businesses, he added, need to be viewed as "communities of people" which produce goods and services and "do not exist for the sole reason of creating profit, although this is necessary".
According to the pope, in order to avoid decline the business sector needed to "invest in research and innovation, not engage in unfair competition practices, not forget its social responsibilities and offer incentives for quality productivity which responds to the needs of the people".
Businesses can "be vital and produce 'social wealth' if they are run by people with foresight, who prefer to invest in the long term rather than reap speculative profit and who promote innovation rather than accumulate wealth for themselves alone," Benedict concluded.
