It has often been said that “business ethics” is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms because it is said that there is an inherent conflict between ethics and the  pursuit of profit... Today we find ourselves in a quandary – is our world spinning out of control?  Has evil taken root in every sphere of our lives so that even the very means of our efforts to sustain our existence are now suspect?

In his Ecumenical, “Evangeli Gaudium,” Pope Francis commented that  humanity is experiencing a turning point in its history, as can be seen from the advances occurring in the sciences and in technology.  We are in an age of knowledge and information, and he has noted that this “has led to new and often anonymous kinds of power.” He notes that today we have “an economy of exclusion and inequality.”  In a system that idolizes increased profit, everything that stands in its way is pushed aside.  Behind this attitude ethics has come to be viewed with derision, as being counterproductive.  It is felt to be a threat because it is outside of the categories of the marketplace.

Likewise, Pope Benedict XVI in his Encyclical Caritas in Veritate emphasized that the economy is not a moral-free zone.  Perhaps its most important truth-claim about economic life is that the market economy cannot be based on just any value system --market economies must be underpinned by commitments to particular moral goods and a certain vision of the human person if it is to serve rather than undermine humanity’s common good.”  He stressed that “The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly – not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics which is people-centered.” 

And indeed, today, ethics in finance and business is now accorded attention..  Corporate governance in financial and capital markets is ethics-based.  And so, we have seen a rise in government regulations, in the adoption of corporate governance codes, in the formulation of codes of conduct, in the strict observance of international financial standards. We are seeing that ethical behavior is the best long-term business strategy for a company.  Indeed, it has also been said that a company will stand or fall on its values.

However, as the world struggles to “laymanize” ethics and ethical behavior, it seems to lose sight of what the Church has continually emphasized – that the heart of social doctrine remains to be the human person.  This has to be the source that should inspire the thinking and behavior of businessmen and government leaders –  their policies, actions, and responses must always consider the centrality of the human person.

Unfortunately, growth and development, as the world sees it, are independent or differentiated from the question of faith, as if human promotion is one thing, and the proclamation of faith is another…hence the idea that ethics and business are incompatible...that economics and religion never the twain can meet.

The development of peoples, “is intimately linked to the development of individuals.”  But all too often governments and political systems consider the development of peoples as matters of technological progress, of opening up markets and removing tariffs, of more investment in production, of financial engineering and institutional reforms, that is, outside the realm of spirituality.

In conclusion, it must be said that true development is about integral development, which is about the whole person, and includes his spiritual development. In other words, ethics  must be central to any ordering of human affairs.

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