Washington D.C., Mar 21, 2016 / 23:13 pm
Businesses can care for both the poor and the created world by making decisions that focus on the human person and not merely profit, said Catholic leaders at a conference on Thursday.
Business "must always strive to meet genuine human needs rather than feed a culture of consumerism, a whirlwind, if you want, of needless buying and selling due to the slavery to consumerism," Cardinal Peter Turkson said at a March 17 conference on human ecology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
The president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace added that businesses "should always put jobs before short-term profits."
The conference, a gathering of business leaders and clergy from across the United States, celebrated the 125th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's social encyclical on labor Rerum Novarum.