The Rome Summit was born from the need to enhance the social role of business, promoted by Ucid, which will be held on May 15th at Palazzo Borromeo with the participation of young representatives of business associations, the leaders of Italian institutions and those of the Church , with a lectio magistralis by the Secretary of State Pietro Parolin. The objective is to start a dialogue on the crises that worry our time one step away from the Holy Year of 2025. The speech by Benedetto Delle Site, national president of the Ucid Youth Movement (Christian Union of Business Managers)
05/09/2024
There is no good economy without good entrepreneurs, that of the entrepreneur is a noble vocation: these are the words of the Holy Father. Giuseppe Toniolo, whose thought on the economy was fundamental in giving shape to the Catholic movement at the end of the nineteenth century and to the Social Doctrine of the Church, he rightly considered entrepreneurs “the first cells of the economic organism”. Without those who have received the talent and vocation to create wealth through the organization of work, without those who exercise the decisive responsibilities in the company, taking on the risks, the production and exchange of goods and services could not take place efficiently . That is, leaving aside entrepreneurs and managers, it is not possible to build an economy truly worthy of the human person and his expectations.
If we place ourselves in this perspective, the idea of the rampant entrepreneur, who works for himself and who asserts himself to the detriment of society, has no point of coincidence either with the proposal of the social magisterium of the Church, nor with the daily practice of many business women and men. We need to remember this to prevent certain rhetoric from taking hold. It is starting from these premises – from the need to enhance the social role of business, that the Ucid Youth Movement (Christian Union of Executive Entrepreneurs) intends to launch the Rome Summit, (here is the programme), which will be held on 15 May, starting from 4.30 pm and will be hosted at Palazzo Borromeo, headquarters of the Italian Embassy in the Vatican, with the participation of young representatives of business associations, the leaders of Italian institutions – they will bring the greeting from the vice president of the Council of Ministers Antonio Tajani to the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Lorenzo Fontana – and the leaders of the Church, the Secretary of State, H.E.R. the Card. will be with us. Pietro Parolin, who will open the proceedings with a lectio magistralis. The objective is to start a dialogue on the crises that worry our time one step away from the Holy Year of 2025.
In a global economy characterized less and less by the faces of people and more and more by the activity of large funds, anonymous capital, the scenario against which the Social Doctrine of the Church was born seems to have materialised, «free competition has been destroyed, freedom hegemony has taken over from the market”, wrote Pius XI in Quadragesimo Anno. It was 1931, but they are words that after more than ninety years send out a still necessary warning, in the face of the excessive power of large financial groups, of global and irresponsible platforms, of economies that ignore the territory.
These are the great themes of the Italian civil economy and of The Economy of Francesco, which is mobilizing youth around the Holy Father’s appeal for a truly human-scale economy, themes which however must be brought to the ground, translated into good practices of the company. Some might think of an economy that even does without entrepreneurs. Yet, Italy continues to be the home of authentic excellence, small and large entrepreneurs who the world admires for their genius and inventiveness. What the economist claimed has never been more relevant today than ever before Joseph Schumpeter: the entrepreneur is not simply a holder of capital (the so-called ‘capitalist’), but is first and foremost an innovator. If it is true that the entrepreneur is an innovator, this is doubly true for a young entrepreneur, who today is called upon to transform past business models and imagine new ones, necessarily breaking balances and habits.
However, in Italy the number of young people who are entrepreneurial is decreasing and indeed the number of young people in circulation is decreasing, as confirmed by recent ISTAT data, which portray a nation destined in the future to regress to thirty million inhabitants in old age. It is the phenomenon of the “dejuvenation” of the population, as the demographer recalls Alessandro Rosina, first to coin the term. A trend is underway which risks having a devastating impact on all sectors of economic and social life and which sees Italy as the leader, followed by Europe and the other countries of the so-called North of the world.
It is in this scenario and around these themes that the young entrepreneurs and managers of Ucid wanted to launch the Rome Summit, with the aim of giving life to a new economic forum, a periodic event that has Rome as its headquarters not only territorially, but above all as moral center.
Young entrepreneurs are able to take the field with real, concrete proposals aimed at public decision-makers at every level of government. These are proposals that arise from the experience of those who find themselves managing a company directly and representing thousands of them through the historic business representative organizations that have agreed to participate. Representatives of young entrepreneurs from the most representative business associations in the country will be with us: Riccardo Di Stefano for Confindustria, Angelica Donati for Ance, Davide Peli for Confartigianato, Andrea Sangiorgi for Confcooperative, Antonio Ieraci for Federmanager, Giovanni Gioia for Confagricoltura, Eustachio Papapietro for Confapi, Enrico Parisi for Coldiretti.
The transformations underway in the world of economics will have important repercussions in the coming years in social, cultural, ethical-anthropological terms and increasingly call for far-sighted leadership capable of governing and directing change, combined with the wisdom of authentic moral authorities who offer an authentic inspiration for the common good. This is the time to truly involve the new generations in governance processes.
Ucid (Christian Union of Executive Entrepreneurs) brings together over 3,000 entrepreneurs and business managers in Italy who are inspired by the social doctrine of the Church. Private association of faithful, it is a direct emanation of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI).
