CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri has had a private audience with Pope Francis I, the head of Catholic Church. It took place during a conference in Vatican City in Rome on Saturday, organised by the Centesimus Annus pro Pontifice Foundation on the theme, “New Policies and Lifestyles in the Digital Age.” During their discussion, Dr. Cavalieri stressed the responsibility of the business community to develop both professional skills and socially ethical awareness among young people entering the workplace.

The Centesimus Annus pro Pontifice Foundation is an international association of business and professional leaders from across the Catholic world, dedicated to infusing the ethical and social doctrine promoted by the church in economic policies and practices.

During his address to the gathering, the Pope rejected what he  described as a “false dichotomy” between the ethical teachings of religious traditions and the practical concerns of today’s business community.  He insisted that there exists a natural bond between profit and social responsibility, stating that ethics respectful of humanity and the common good should form the basis of every economic financial system. Where moral deficiencies exist, he said, they come as a result of individual rather than systemic failures.

“The current difficulties and crises within the global economic system have an undeniable ethical dimension,” Pope Francis stated.  “They are related to a mentality of egoism and exclusion that has effectively created a culture of waste blind to the human dignity of the most vulnerable.”

The conference was also attended by the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians worldwide, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. This was the second time that the CIBJO President has met with the Pope at the Apostolic Palace. His first private audience with Pope Francis took place in May of last year.