For Catholic businessman, Saint John Paul II offers a new work ethic
Mumbai (AsiaNews) - Albert D' Souza, a Catholic businessman, has heeded John Paul II's call to turn ethics into an economic model by setting up professional schools and developing educational courses.
Speaking to AsiaNews, the Mumbai businessman said that meeting the Holy Father in 2004 taught him to see ethics and corporate social responsibility as the norm rather than the exception.
In view of this, Saint John Paul II "now encourages us Catholic business people to serve God and the people, to grow in joy and encourage greater economic prosperity for all."
Albert D' Souza, a former president of the Christian Chamber of Commerce, heads Model Co-operative Bank Ltd, and Aldel Education Trust. He is also the general manager of Printania Offset Pvt Ltd, a publishing house specialising in Christian literature.
In March 2004 he was in Rome as a delegate to the conference 'The Business Executive: Social Responsibility and Globalisation,' organised by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the International Christian Union of Business Executives (UNIAPAC), an ecumenical association of Christian business people. On 6 March, he had the "great honour" of being received by Pope John Paul II in a private audience.
"After this gathering, especially after meeting John Paul II, I deeply felt a call to spread the value of ethics in economics and to educate, encourage and help new generations of business people".
"I had already been involved in this since 1997," he told AsiaNews, "by promoting Catholic entrepreneurship throughout India." During this period, "I travelled extensively in many dioceses in the country, meeting bishops, provincials and entrepreneurs. However, the audience with Pope John Paul II fulfilled my desire to meet India's desperate need for professional schools to train, for example, engineers and pharmacists."
Thus, in 2007, he set up the Aldel Education Trust, which now runs four professional schools in Palghar (Mumbai): the St John's College of Engineering and Technology, the St John Institute of Pharmacy and Research, the St John Institute of Management & Research, and the St John Institute of Hospitality and Catering Technology.
"With John Paul II's canonisation, the business world has a great role model and guide who calls on us to pay attention to the person and to human dignity," the businessman said.
In his Encyclical Veritatis Splendor (1993), the late pontiff stressed that "Judgments about morality cannot be made without taking into consideration whether or not the deliberate choice of a specific kind of behaviour is in conformity with the dignity and integral vocation of the human person."
For D'Souza, the encyclicals of two other popes - Pope Benedict XVI's Caritas in Veritate and Pope Francis' Evangelii Gaudium - also influenced his experience as a Catholic businessman.
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