March 1, 2015, 1:50 p.m. – SELF-transcendent values
should be prioritized along with self-enhancement values for a “more inclusive”
economy and society, Italian economist Stefano Zamagni said Thursday during the
9th International Conference on Catholic Social Thought and Business Education.
“The squalor that comes from many tragic events and cases of
destitution leads us to consider carefully the notion of ‘social inclusion’ and
to identify it with the litmus test of the seriousness of our declarations,”
Zamagni told more than 200 delegates from more than 20 countries at De La Salle
University.
“To include means sharing, participating. It entails moving
from being a stranger and misfit to be an integrated and active subject, from a
subject to a sovereign citizen,” he said.
Zamagni pointed to “five peace points” set out by Pope Pius
XII as economic standards for a better society: the abolition of extreme
inequality in wealth and possessions, availability of equal opportunities of
education for every child, the protection of family as a social unit, the restoration of the sense of a divine
vocation in a man’s daily work; and the use of earth resources with due
consideration for the needs of the present and future generations.
Zamagni is the president of the Italian Commission for the Non-Profit
Sector and has been teaching in the University of Bologna since 1979.
The three-day conference was organized by the John A. Ryan
Institute for Catholic Social Thought of the University of St. Thomas in
Minnesota, and co-organized by De La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila, and De
La Salle-College of Saint Benilde.
With the theme “Prosperity, Poverty and the Purpose of
Business: Rediscovering Integral Human Development in the Catholic Social
Tradition: Rediscovering Integral Human Development in the Catholic Social
Tradition,” the conference sought to “address the relationship of poverty and
prosperity with the three basic goods of business: good goods, good work, and
good wealth.”
In the plenary session titled “How is more important than
What” on Friday at Ateneo de Manila, Filipino businessman Ramon del Rosario,
Jr. said the collaboration between educational institutions and businesses was
important in producing and sustaining “Christ-loving business people.”
“There are no better models for our students than seeing
their alma maters fighting against or fighting for exactly the same things we
expect them to fight against when they leave our campuses,” said Del Rosario.
“Our societies still need your voices—in the battle against
corruption, environmental degradation, the low quality of education, poverty
and so many other social ills that plague all of us—to build communities of
support and for Catholic universities to be models for our students.”
Del Rosario is the president and chief executive officer of
Philippine Investment Management, Inc. and of PHINMA Corporation, two
affiliated companies with investments in energy, education, housing, hotels,
business process outsourcing, and steel roofing. Lord Bien G. Lelay
