The Garden of God: Toward A Human Ecology

Social Responsibility Means More Attention to the Needs of Workers, the Good of the Community, and the Respect of the Environment

118 Environment, Science & Technology saic law, and called him Jesus, the name given to him by the Angel (cf. Lk 2:21). This name, which means “God saves,” is the fulfillment of God’s revelation. Jesus is the Face of God, he is the blessing for every person and for all peoples, he is peace for the world. Thank you, Blessed Mother, who gave birth to the Savior , the Prince of Peace! Social Responsibility Means More Attention to the Needs of Workers, the Good of the Community, and the Respect of the Environment From Address to the Directors and Personnel of the Municipal Electricity and Water Board (ACEA), February 6, 2010 I would also like to express my pleasure at your project of cooperation with the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel, in the endeavor to respond to the emergency in water and energy resources in their developing countries. I have also seen with great interest your “Charter of Values” and “Ethical Code” that recall the principles of responsibility, transparency, correctness, and the spirit of service and collaboration that ACEA invokes. These are the guidelines that this board desires to recall and on which it wishes to build its image and reputation. You have just concluded the celebrations for the centenary of ACEA. Indeed, one hundred years have passed since that 10 September 1909, when with a popular referendum the citizens of Rome decided that public lighting and collective transportation 119 Environment, Science & Technology should be municipalized. Since that day your board has developed together with Rome. It has been a long and fascinating journey, full of both challenges and triumphs. It is enough to remember how complicated it was to guarantee essential services to ever wider social sectors, to new neighborhoods that have often developed in a chaotic and illegal manner in a city that was changing and expanding out of all proportion. Thus, in the course of the years, we can say that the relationship between the city and ACEA has become ever closer, thanks, especially, to the many services that the company has supplied and continues to supply to the city, sustaining and encouraging its transformation into a modern metropolis. This centenary celebration has ended in a period full of difficulties , marked by a serious international crisis that has led the world to rethink a model of development based primarily on finance and profit, in order to refocus human activity on our capacity to produce, to innovate, to think, and to build the future. As I emphasized in the encyclical Caritas in Veritate, it is important to increase awareness in the business world of the need for a broader “social responsibility” that will impel it to continue to give proper consideration to the expectations and needs of their workers, customers, suppliers, and the entire community and to pay special attention to the environment.21 Thus the production of goods and services will not be exclusively bound to the search for financial gain but also to the promotion of the common good. I rejoice that the history of the past hundred years has not only been expressed in the numerical terms of ever 21. Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, n. 40. 120 Environment, Science & Technology greater competitiveness but also in a moral commitment that strives to pursue the well-being of all. In the spirit of service that characterizes ACEA I would like to express my appreciation of all that ACEA has achieved, thanks to the professional skill of its employees, in illuminating the monuments that make Rome unique in the world. In this regard, I would like to recall with gratitude the material assistance provided on the occasion of the celebrations for the eightieth anniversary of the foundation of Vatican City State. Numerous churches, starting with St. Peter’s Basilica, have also been enhanced by skillful lighting which brings out what human beings have been able to achieve in order to express their faith in Christ, “the true light that enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9). I also appreciate ACEA’s commitment to protecting the environment by means of the sustainable management of natural resources, reduction of the environmental impact [of its activities ], and respect for creation. However, it is equally important to promote a human ecology which can make both the workplace and personal relations worthy of the human being. In this regard I would like to reaffirm what I said in the...