To speak on business people and how Church can aid them

By KATE BLAIN- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

"There's a type of priest or minister who looks at wealthy people as either great benefactors or robber barons," says Rev. Oliver Williams, CSC.

But he believes that spiritual leaders should look at business people as having a vocation to their chosen field.

On March 31, he will explain his views during the annual Rev. Theodore Hesburgh alumni lecture at The College of Saint Rose in Albany. His talk is titled, "Recent Catholic Social Thought: A Remarkable Turn."

The speaker, an associate professor of management and director of the Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business at the University of Notre Dame, noted that the Church's 1991 document on economic ethics, "Centisimus Annus," clearly stated for the first time that "capitalism is good."

"The Church now says that business is a vocation, a calling from God," Father Williams explained. "Now, the Church should supply the resources" to help business people act justly, including support groups and discussion groups in parishes.

The speaker also thinks that future priests should receive training in seminaries to understand the economic system.

"If we understood Catholic social teaching, it would influence the way we make decisions in the business world," he said. Social teaching "offers us a vision of the sort of people we should try to become, the sort of world we should try to be. It's a moral compass."

Father Williams plans to use two extremes in his talk: cartoons from the New Yorker to "make a serious point in a humorous way," and ideas from "Centisimus Annus" to teach about values.

"There's a quote from 'Centisimus Annus' that tells us to `remember to focus on truth and beauty,'" he said. "It's been said that a businessman knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. 'Centisimus Annus' is trying to help us find value."

The speaker hopes that a variety of Catholics attend his lecture, from "students interested in learning more about what it means to be Christians in the business world" to "intelligent laypeople." His talk, he said, addresses everyone.

("Recent Catholic Social Thought: A Remarkable Turn" will be held March 31 at 7 p.m. in the Hubbard Interfaith Sanctuary at The College of Saint Rose in Albany. The talk is co-sponsored by CSR, the Notre Dame Club of Northeastern New York, and the diocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis. Admission is free. For information, call 454-2152.)

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