Matthew 26, 14-16 + CSDC and CV

 (CV 41a) In the context of this discussion, it is helpful to observe that business enterprise involves a wide range of values, becoming wider all the time. The continuing hegemony of the binary model of market-plus-State has accustomed us to think only in terms of the private business leader of a capitalistic bent on the one hand, and the State director on the other. In reality, business has to be understood in an articulated way. There are a number of reasons, of a meta-economic kind, for saying this. Business activity has a human significance, prior to its professional one[98]. It is present in all work, understood as a personal action, an “actus personae” [99], which is why every worker should have the chance to make his contribution knowing that in some way “he is working ‘for himself'”[100].

Notes: [98] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 32: loc. cit., 832-833; Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 25: loc. cit., 269-270. [99] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 24: loc. cit., 637-638. [100] Ibid., 15: loc. cit., 616-618.

Essentially, these values are: truth, freedom, justice, love

CSDC 197b. All social values are inherent in the dignity of the human person, whose authentic development they foster. Essentially, these values are: truth, freedom, justice, love [427]. Putting them into practice is the sure and necessary way of obtaining personal perfection and a more human social existence. They constitute the indispensable point of reference for public authorities, called to carry out “substantial reforms of economic, political, cultural and technological structures and the necessary changes in institutions”[428].

Notes: [427] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 26: AAS 58 (1966), 1046-1047; John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963), 265-266. [428] Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 43, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, p. 44.

(Mt 26, 14-16) For the love of money is the root of all evils

[14] Then one of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests [15] and said, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver, [16] and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.

CSDC 328. Goods, even when legitimately owned, always have a universal destination; any type of improper accumulation is immoral, because it openly contradicts the universal destination assigned to all goods by the Creator. Christian salvation is an integral liberation of man, which means being freed not only from need but also in respect to possessions. “For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith” (1 Tim 6:10). The Fathers of the Church insist more on the need for the conversion and transformation of the consciences of believers than on the need to change the social and political structures of their day. They call on those who work in the economic sphere and who possess goods to consider themselves administrators of the goods that God has entrusted to them.

[Initials and Abbreviations.- CSDC: Pontifical Council for Justice And Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church; -  SDC: Social Doctrine of the Church; - CV: Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in truth)]