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March
5, 2007
VOL.
45, NO. 5Oakland,
CA
Attorney to
address how to put
Catholic social teaching into business education
 |
Ernest Pierucci |
San Francisco
attorney Ernest Pierucci, a specialist in integrating Catholic social
teaching into college business education, will speak March 13 on “Catholic
Business Schools – Oxymoron of Higher Education?” at the 7
a.m. monthly meeting of Catholics at Work, a fellowship of individuals
who explore how to live one’s values in the workplace.
According to Pierucci, many Catholic business schools split off social
teaching from the business management curriculum, assuming that students
have received enough spiritual direction and formation to apply those
principles to the business world. “That’s a flawed perspective,”
argues the attorney, “but one that is embraced by virtually every
Catholic business school in the country.”
Pierucci, who holds degrees from Saint Mary’s College in Moraga
and the Catholic University of America in Washington. D.C., said in a
telephone interview that reforming Catholic business school curriculum
is “a complex issue that requires challenging our accepted understanding
of the fundamental nature of business: What is its nature and purpose?
We must actively redefine the role of Catholic higher education in growing
the next generation of global business leaders.”
For example, he said that while the standard understanding of the corporation
is to bring profits to itself and to shareholders while operating within
the law, Catholic social teaching says that while profits are a good thing,
the ultimate goal of a business is to promote the common good.
“What we lack today is a body of scholarship and a body of scholars
that would explicate what it would mean to operate a modern public corporation
for the common good.”
Pierucci co-founded Catholics for the Common Good Institute, as well as
the John F. Henning Institute on Catholic Social Thought at Saint Mary’s
College.
He is part of the Catholic Business School Project, an endeavor by 12
Catholic colleges and universities to integrate Catholic social teaching
into the daily conduct of business. Its offices are located at the University
of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
His March 13 lecture will be held at the Crow Canyon Country Club, 711
Silver Lake Drive in Danville. For reservations contact:
www.catholicsatwork.org/EventDesc.aspx
. Cost of the full buffet breakfast is $25 for members and $32 for non-members.
A 6:30 a.m. Mass precedes the breakfast.
