Pope Francis to family businesses: ‘May your faith guide you’

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

“May the gift of faith increasingly guide your presence in local realities and strengthen your participation in the fate of humanity.”

This was Pope Francis’ encouragement to members of the AIDAF Italian Family Business Association in the Vatican on Saturday.

Founded in 1997 by Alberto Falck with a group of entrepreneurs inspired by the same values, the AIDAF organization proposes itself as the reference point in Italy for family businesses. It brings together about 270 companies. 

AIDAF is the Italian Chapter of FBN Family Business Network, the international institution that brings together 3,210 family businesses with more than 10,300 members in 58 countries around the world.

Church is family of God

As the Pope welcomed the delegation from the Association, he recalled that “the Church is the family of God and looks with sympathy at everything that is family-oriented.”

The Holy Father observed that the Association is characterized by the “delicate balance” between family and work, expressed in entrepreneurial courage and responsibility, and made a point of reaffirming that family must be priority, rather than isolated individuals.

Courage and responsibility

Pope Francis reaffirmed the importance of care, especially for the family,  future generations, and our common home.

“Just as the Church’s mission is generally rooted in a territory, so is your activity,” he said, urging them to always further enrich this through witnessing family bonds and the seriousness of their professional commitment.

May faith guide you

“May the gift of faith,” he said, “increasingly guide your presence in local realities and strengthen your participation in the fate of humanity.”

The Holy Father underscored that that everything is connected, and stressed that since bonds of fraternity are wounded and the environment is suffering, how important it is they, even if operating locally, do so with “a universal heart.”

“When you work in and for different parts of the world,” he said, “spread the value of being a ‘family.’”

The Holy Father encouraged them to keep moving forward, to “feel that you are part of, within the Church, a larger family and a greater enterprise: the service to the Kingdom of God and His justice.”

Foster listening from generation to generation

For this reason, the Pope invited them to broaden their heart and perspective, and “to foster listening between generations both at home and in the workplace, to believe in the vocation of your children—whatever it may be,—and to open doors and windows to those who can walk a part of the journey with you.”

“Let us remember the parable of the talents: nothing that has been entrusted to us should be ‘buried’! So don’t be afraid, and move forward with confidence,” he said.