News Intro Text
James Martin, SJ address of the Catholic Finance Association in New York City: October 7, 2014.
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<p><em><span class="intro">Addressing the Catholic Finance Association in New York City: October 7, 2014. </span></em></p>
<p><span class="intro">I am happy to come to this conversation not only as a Jesuit priest, but also as a proud graduate of the Wharton School of Business. To establish some bona fides, I was a finance major at Wharton, took a job in the Financial Management Program at General Electric in New York City, which was then the International Finance and Accounting headquarters of GE, worked after my training program for a year in international accounting, and then took a job running the FMP program at GE Capital in Stamford, Connecticut, and finally moved into human resources. So I come before you as someone who knows that business is a real vocation, who still has many friends in business (and specifically in finance) and who also knows that business is a real way to contribute to the common good. </span></p>
<p><span class="intro">So I approach our discussion of executive compensation from a financial point of view and a human resource point of view, but also, of course, from a Catholic point of view. You will hear a lot about the financial perspective and the human resource perspective tonight from our other distinguished participants, but I think what I might be able to contribute is the Catholic perspective.</span></p>
<p><span class="intro">The Catholic perspective on salaries, compensation and labor is the Christian perspective in general, and the basis of that is always the Gospels. You all know what Jesus commands us in the Gospels, and, we might say even more accurately, invites us to: Love our neighbor. Pray for those who persecute you. Forgive someone seventy times seven times. And of course care for the poor. Jesus is born into a poor family in a poor town, he works as a carpenter, which at the time would've been seen as a very low-class occupation (below the peasantry, since the carpenter did not have the benefit of a stable plot of land), he sees the disparities between the rich and poor in his own lifetime, and he constantly pointed us to the poor and the marginalized in his public ministry. So this is the Christian perspective. <a href="http://www.americamagazine.org/content/all-things/too-much-ceo-compensation-and-catholic-social-teaching?utm_source=Main+Reader+List&utm_campaign=b06f611613-July+18_The_Week_at_Commonweal&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_407bf353a2-b06f611613-91268989">MORE>></a></span></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.loyno.edu/news/story/2014/10/8/3513">James Martin, SJ will headline Loyola’s Presidential Guest Series Saturday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. His talk will be followed by a book signing.</a></p>
<p><span class="intro">I am happy to come to this conversation not only as a Jesuit priest, but also as a proud graduate of the Wharton School of Business. To establish some bona fides, I was a finance major at Wharton, took a job in the Financial Management Program at General Electric in New York City, which was then the International Finance and Accounting headquarters of GE, worked after my training program for a year in international accounting, and then took a job running the FMP program at GE Capital in Stamford, Connecticut, and finally moved into human resources. So I come before you as someone who knows that business is a real vocation, who still has many friends in business (and specifically in finance) and who also knows that business is a real way to contribute to the common good. </span></p>
<p><span class="intro">So I approach our discussion of executive compensation from a financial point of view and a human resource point of view, but also, of course, from a Catholic point of view. You will hear a lot about the financial perspective and the human resource perspective tonight from our other distinguished participants, but I think what I might be able to contribute is the Catholic perspective.</span></p>
<p><span class="intro">The Catholic perspective on salaries, compensation and labor is the Christian perspective in general, and the basis of that is always the Gospels. You all know what Jesus commands us in the Gospels, and, we might say even more accurately, invites us to: Love our neighbor. Pray for those who persecute you. Forgive someone seventy times seven times. And of course care for the poor. Jesus is born into a poor family in a poor town, he works as a carpenter, which at the time would've been seen as a very low-class occupation (below the peasantry, since the carpenter did not have the benefit of a stable plot of land), he sees the disparities between the rich and poor in his own lifetime, and he constantly pointed us to the poor and the marginalized in his public ministry. So this is the Christian perspective. <a href="http://www.americamagazine.org/content/all-things/too-much-ceo-compensation-and-catholic-social-teaching?utm_source=Main+Reader+List&utm_campaign=b06f611613-July+18_The_Week_at_Commonweal&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_407bf353a2-b06f611613-91268989">MORE>></a></span></p>
<hr />
<p><a href="http://www.loyno.edu/news/story/2014/10/8/3513">James Martin, SJ will headline Loyola’s Presidential Guest Series Saturday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. His talk will be followed by a book signing.</a></p>