A genuine human, Christian calling

From company CEOs and members of boards of directors to team leaders to people with informal influence, business leaders of all kinds play a critical role in shaping economic life and creating the conditions for all people to develop integrally through business institutions.

Such institutions are highly diverse, including cooperatives, multinational corporations, small entrepreneurial start-ups, employee-owned businesses, family businesses, social businesses, partnerships, sole-proprietorships, joint ventures with government, and for-profit/non-profit collaborations. Some of these businesses are publicly traded stock companies, while most are privately held.  …

The vocation of the businessperson is a genuine human and Christian calling. …

The importance of the businessperson’s vocation in the life of the Church and in the world economy can hardly be overstated. Business leaders are called to conceive of and develop goods and services for customers and communities through a form of market economy.

For such economies to promote the common good, they need to uphold respect for truth, fidelity to commitments, human dignity, freedom, creativity, and the universal destination of goods—meaning that God’s creation is a gift to everyone.

— Adapted from Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection, by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (2018), #5, 6