Being a businessman is a vocation and a path to holiness, Catholic expert says
Luis Fernando Calvo says business is a vocation through which entrepreneurs can serve society and participate in God’s creation. Calvo will deliver a lecture on business organization in Catholic social thought at the first event of the Costa Rican Association of Christian Businessmen. He says Catholic social doctrine calls businesspeople to act honestly and responsibly toward workers and the common good. Calvo argues that businesses are communities of people, not merely tools for profit, and that work done well can be a path to holiness.
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Luis Fernando Calvo, director of the Tomás Moro Institute, says business can be a genuine vocation and a path to holiness when practiced as service to workers and society, guided by Catholic social teaching. His remarks precede a lecture organized by the newly formed Costa Rican Association of Christian Businessmen. 1
Calvo describes entrepreneurship as participation in God’s creation: business leaders can improve the world and make it more habitable for people. He says business involves more than earning profit, though profit remains necessary; through their work, entrepreneurs create jobs, goods, and services and contribute to society. 1
Calvo says Catholic social doctrine offers guidance for conducting business with consistency, honesty, and responsibility toward employees and the common good. He also characterizes a business not simply as a profit-making instrument, but as a community of people called to serve society. 1
The Costa Rican Association of Christian Businessmen is scheduled to hold its first event on Oct. 1, featuring Calvo’s lecture, “Business Organization in the Church’s Social Thought.” Calvo said the talk aims to help businesspeople recognize that work done well can be a form of service and a path to holiness. 1
Business serves human dignity and the common good
In Catholic social teaching, business serves human dignity and the common good when it treats people as persons—not merely as labor, customers, or sources of profit—and directs its economic activity toward genuine human needs. Human dignity is inherent in every person and cannot be reduced to usefulness or achievement.
This does not make profit or efficiency irrelevant. A business needs sound economic activity, but its purpose is broader: to provide useful goods and services, create meaningful work, develop people’s abilities, and generate wealth that benefits society. The Church’s social teaching describes a business not only as a pool of capital but as a “society of persons” with shared responsibilities.
That vision can be put into practice through three linked responsibilities: producing goods and services that meet authentic needs, organizing good and productive work, and creating and sharing prosperity sustainably. It also requires resisting practices such as corruption, exploitation, and environmental destruction, whose hidden costs can fall on communities and future generations.
So business is not automatically a service to the common good simply because it creates jobs or earns revenue. Its choices must help people and communities flourish, especially those at the margins, while respecting the social and environmental conditions on which shared prosperity depends.