A Catechism for Business: Tough Ethical Questions and Insights from Catholic Teaching

Many managers who believe themselves to be religious are all too willing to “check their religion at the door” of their workplaces. They may simply be ignorant of the implications of their faith for their business practices. Catholic teaching on business and economics has been described (with intentional irony) as the Church’s “best kept secret.” The Catholic Church has over the years developed extensive and detailed guidance for many areas of business. But this guidance is often buried within lengthy teaching documents that may not be easily accessible to the busy executive. Answers to specific moral questions may be tough to find.

A Catechism for Business presents the teachings of the Catholic Church as they relate to more than one hundred specific and challenging moral questions that have been asked by business leaders. Andrew V. Abela and Joseph E. Capizzi have assembled the relevant quotations from recent Catholic social teaching as responses to these questions. Questions and answers are grouped under major topics such as marketing, finance, and investment. Business ethics questions can be too subtle for definitive yes / no answers, so the book offers no more and no less than church teaching on each particular question. Where the church has offered definitive answers, the book provides them. When the church has not, the book offers guidelines for reflection and insights into what one should consider in given situations.

The book’s easy-to-use question and answer approach invites quick reference for tough questions and serves as a basis for reflection and deeper study in the rich Catholic tradition of social doctrine.