Beyond money and success, build community, pope tells businesspeople

By Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Businesspeople in today's culture plagued by individualism must look beyond money and success to work for the common good, Pope Francis said.

Meeting Feb. 17 with a group of Mexican entrepreneurs, the pope urged them to pay special attention to their relationship with God so they may be signs of God's presence in the world of finance.

"The most important capital we can have is spiritual capital," he told them. "When the Lord touches our hearts, we broaden our gaze and are able to see those in need and to care for creation."

The consequences of "our consciences put to sleep by comfort" are visible in war and in poverty and cause those who are suffering to be forgotten, the pope said. That is why he asked the businesspeople to be artisans of peace and build a community where "everyone, without exception, feels welcomed and loved by God."

Unfortunately, the pope said, "we are losing our sense of being a family, of respecting ourselves and tolerating each other even with our differences and difficulties."

Pope Francis also said people need good priests to help them with their relationship with God, adding that "it is the faithful's right to have well-formed priests." He asked the business leaders to pray for their priests and be close to them in their pastoral ministry.

In welcoming the group, the pope used the Mexican phrase, "Mi casa es su casa" (my home is your home), and said that the Vatican is a place where "the children of the church can come together and praise God as a family."

Pope Francis also asked the businesspeople to foster a relationship with Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of Mexico, and not let anyone involve her in ideology, but appreciate her just as she is -- "simple and dark-skinned."

He added that the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, the most-visited Catholic shrine in the world, should represent the entire church, since it welcomes all of God's children to bring their pain and hope to Mary.