We were very grateful to interview Andrew V. Abela and Joseph E. Capizzi, co-editors of A Catechism for Business: Tough Ethical Questions & Insights from Catholic Teaching, which has been given two updated editions and a Spanish translation. Abela is the Dean of the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America. Capizzi is the Executive Director of the Institute for Human Ecology at The Catholic University of America.
Q: One of the main allures of A Catechism for Business is that it distills church teachings that have been steadily developed over the centuries and makes them accessible to the average Catholic lay person. When did you first recognize the necessity of this resource?
A: We both realized the need for this from our different speaking engagements. When speaking with different groups of Catholics, including men and women working in business, attorneys, and small business owners, we discovered that nearly all of them were struggling to integrate their faith into their work. They knew that integration was essential to being Catholic, but they often struggled to locate support for specific concerns. We knew many of their concerns were addressed in Catholic social doctrine and wanted to help them help themselves and evangelize their workplaces.
Q: The book is structured in a Q&A format organized by general topics. How did you decide what questions to include?
A: Nearly all the questions came from these public settings. We accumulated them over decades of speaking. It’s kind of scary: between us we’ve been speaking to Catholic (and non-Catholic!) audiences for over 50 years! We discovered that many people had the same sorts of questions. Sometimes the questions would arise after the speaking engagements: people would email us with very precise questions that they didn’t want to ask in public or that had dawned on them after hearing one of us speak.
Q: What new discoveries have you made about Catholicism and business by compiling and revising this book? Was there anything that surprised you?
A: The single most surprising thing is the perseverance. These questions don’t go away and, more significantly, Church teaching endures as well. Its depth is unfathomable. This little book contains only the surface of that teaching. As we say in the book, we encourage readers to use this as a first or second step in becoming more familiar with the great gift of Catholic social doctrine.
Q: If you were to release another edition 10 years from now, what issues do you imagine will need addressing for Catholics in the workplace?
A: So hard to know. Certainly, the challenges of cryptocurrency and digital financial products will remain. (Well, maybe not certainly!) The increased fusion of political and economic issues will probably be something Church doctrine engages more in the coming decade. We imagine as well there will be more on energy and food production and distribution, and the relationship of these to war. Unfortunately.
If you’re interested in learning more about Catholic social doctrine, check out our interview with Edward Hadas about his book, Counsels of Imperfection: Thinking through Catholic Social Teaching (CUA Press, 2020).