The news of Enrique Shaw’s beatification is of particular importance for the thoughts and social actions of Catholics. It is true that the Church has a positive view of what John Paul II called “business economics,” “market economy,” or “free economy,” even as it sharply criticizes the practical abuses of that system. However, its relationship with the business world has historically been complex.Ha. This is partly due to a limited understanding of the role of the business, which is conceived as a purely technical activity, aimed exclusively at profit and therefore requiring firm external boundaries to prevent the exploitation of workers.
For this reason, in the Social Doctrine of the Church (DSI), the chapter on business ethics is still little developed and, until recently, was limited to a series of warnings to entrepreneurs about the dangers inherent in their activity (e.g. excessive profit-seeking) and to the enumeration of certain general duties (generosity to the community, investments, job creation, fair wages, etc.). For their part, Catholic businessmen have generally adopted a position of submissive passivity and do not dare to enter into an open dialogue with their parish priests that would contribute to a better understanding of the demands of their activity.
In this context, the work and witness of Enrique Shaw – who not only led an exemplary private life, but also a man of extensive and current theological culture – They represent a valuable contribution to this dialogue. Shaw clearly understood that entrepreneurship is a special calling: a call to participate in the creative work of God, who has entrusted mankind with the mission to “dominate the earth.” The company is essentially a creative project, the realization of an idea aimed at the production of goods and services for the benefit of society as a whole. To achieve this goal, the company must be conceived as a “community of people”, which requires closeness between managers and employees, relationships based on mutual knowledge, respect, trust and a spirit of cooperation so that each participant can develop his potential and contribute to the common good. Enrique Shaw confirmed this view using his own example.
However, these ideals cannot be achieved without economic rationality. Often, the ethical requirements that the DSI places on business people – such as the idea of a “fair” salary – are not interpreted realistically, which leads to the company being confused with a philanthropic project that is not sustainable in the long term. Enrique Shaw, on the other hand, knew how to interpret the guidelines of the teaching profession with both seriousness and realism. A significant example of this was his contribution to the introduction of the family wage in Argentina through the system of compensation funds (1957), financed by compulsory monthly contributions from employers, first for commercial workers and later for industrial workers. This mechanism, which originated in France in 1918 and later spread to numerous countries, prevented employers from hiring workers without dependent children if they were forced to pay family allowances.
In the decades since his death, the Church has made remarkable progress in understanding business and in developing an ethic that flows from that activity itself and is essential to its practice. Practicing specific entrepreneurial virtues – such as creativity, willingness to compete and take risks, respect for people and social responsibility – It is now recognized as essential to sustained success over time. The teaching profession has fully internalized the idea of entrepreneurial activity as a vocation and Pope Francis has repeatedly recognized its positive role in the fight against poverty. However, there is still a long way to go before these ideas are consistently integrated into Catholic social discourse, where concern for distributive justice often pushes consideration of the challenge of wealth production into the background. The thoughts and statements of Enrique Shaw show with unique clarity, how the company can and should contribute to authentic economic development that fully takes into account the requirements of social justice.
priest and theologian, Advisory Board of the Acton Institute Argentina
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