Pope Francis Urges French Entrepreneurs to Embrace Work as a Vocation and Promote the Common Good

Message from Pope Francis

I am happy to be able to send you, dear entrepreneurs of France, this brief message on the occasion of your annual meeting. When I think of business leaders, the first word that comes to mind is “common good”. It is, in fact, not possible today to imagine an improvement of the Common Good, that is to say of economic and social life, of justice, of the living conditions of the poorest, without considering entrepreneurs as actors of development and well-being. You are an essential engine of wealth, prosperity, public happiness.

The period we are going through is not easy for anyone, and the business world is also suffering, and sometimes a lot; for a number of reasons, including this absurd war and, before that, the very difficult years of the pandemic. Entrepreneurs suffer when their business suffers, and they suffer a lot when the business goes bankrupt and has to close. The media talks little about the difficulties and pain of entrepreneurs who close their businesses and fail through no fault of their own. The book of Job teaches us that misfortune is not synonymous with fault, because it also strikes the righteous, and that success is not immediately synonymous with virtue and goodness. Misfortune affects everyone, the good and the bad. The Church understands the suffering of the good entrepreneur, she understands your suffering. She welcomes him, she accompanies you, she thanks you. From the beginning, the Church also welcomed merchants, the precursors of modern entrepreneurs. In the Bible and in the Gospels, it is often a question of money, of trade, and among the most beautiful stories of the history of salvation, we also find stories that speak of economy: of drachmas, of talents, of landowners, administrators, precious pearls. In the Gospel of Luke, the father of the prodigal son is presented to us as a rich man, perhaps a landowner. Similarly, the good Samaritan could have been a merchant, he stops near the wounded, takes care of him, then entrusts him to an innkeeper, and he pays him with two denarii.

Today, an increasingly important way to participate in the Common Good is the creation of jobs, jobs for all, especially for young people – trust young people: they need them, and you need them. them. Each new job created is shared wealth, which does not end up in the banks producing financial interest, but is invested so that new people can work and make their lives more dignified. Work is something legitimately important. For if it is true that work ennobles man, it is even more true that it is men who ennoble work. We, not machines, are the true value of labor.

The entrepreneur is also a worker. He lives by working, he lives by working, and he remains an entrepreneur as long as he works. When the entrepreneur no longer works, he becomes a speculator or an annuitant and changes jobs. The good entrepreneur, like the “good shepherd” of the Gospel, unlike the “mercenary”, knows his workers because he knows their work. One of the serious crises of our time is the loss of contact of the entrepreneur with the work of his company, and therefore with his workers, who become “invisible” (Pierre Y. Gomes). You became entrepreneurs because one day you were fascinated by the smell of the workshop, by the joy of touching your products with your hands, by the satisfaction of seeing that your services are useful: never forget this, this is how your vocation was born. And in this you resemble Joseph, Jesus who spent part of his life working as a craftsman: “the Word became a carpenter”. He knew the smell of wood.

One last word. The first capital of your business is you: your heart, your conscience, your virtues, your will to live, your justice. These human, ethical and spiritual capitals are worth more than economic and financial capitals. Today, the new challenges of our complex society cannot be met without good entrepreneurs. You can experience your work as a vocation, as a moral task, as an existential destiny. But a company is not enough, the economy is too little for you: your creativity and your innovation are also necessary in civil society, in communities, in the care of creation. Without new entrepreneurs, our land will not withstand the impact of capitalism. So far you have done something, some of you have done a lot: but it is not enough. We are in an urgent, very urgent period: we must, you must, do more: the children will thank you, and I with them.

I pray that your work and your efforts will bear abundant and lasting fruit, and I send you my warm greetings.

From the Vatican, July 13, 2023