As pontiff, Francis sought to build bridges with global corporate leaders, who sought audiences with him — but also to remind them about the need to look out for the poor.
Pope Francis died on Monday. His loss, of course, is a loss for the world. If you’ll indulge me for just a moment, I’d like to relate his life and his views to what’s happening right now in the business and policy world.
At the end of 2019, I went to the Vatican to interview him. You might ask why a business journalist would have done that? At the time, C.E.O.s and corporate leaders of all faiths were coming regularly to tell him about their plans around E.S.G. Uniquely, they went to seek his approval.
Many people have suggested E.S.G. was virtue-signaling, or marketing. But having personally witnessed these interactions, I can tell you that many business leaders saw it as much more than that. Efforts in the U.S. to completely eliminate E.S.G. and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — the idea of inclusive capitalism — is something that no doubt would have deeply troubled him.
Francis and business
As the world reckons with the passing of Pope Francis, one part of his legacy that is clear is his outreach to — and critiques of — the global business community.
From the outset of his priesthood, steeped in Jesuit theology, the former Jorge Mario Bergoglio always emphasized the concerns of the poor. But as a globe-trotting ambassador for Roman Catholicism, Francis frequently met with global business leaders, building bridges while also admonishing what he saw as the excesses of modern capitalism.