TUESDAY
February 13, 2001
volume 12, no. 44

    DENVER, 9 (NE) "Real freedom is rooted in self-mastery, self-discipline, and talents that are turned outward for others. We need to give to receive", Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap. of Denver stressed recently, during a meeting with Denver business leaders. "Where does God belong in the marketplace? He belongs in the hearts and the actions of the people who make the market succeed… Each of us becomes 'powerful' by becoming free, and we become free by mastering ourselves and living for others," he said.

    During the meeting, the Archbishop highlighted as well the importance of considering first the individual and respect the human being in economic issues. "Power, including economic power, can become a kind of addiction. The language of appetite begins to subvert the language of ideals", Archbishop Chaput stressed.

    "There's a wonderful dignity in financial success rightly earned. But we never lose responsibility for those around us", he said. "When we do lose sight of that responsibility -when we reduce others to statistics or stereotypes or impersonal social problems- the bonds that hold a nation together begin to unravel."

    Stressing the importance of freedom, Archbishop Chaput recalled that "if we associate the idea of freedom with cars or cell phones or computers, as we relentlessly do in our advertising, pretty soon we lose the real vocabulary of freedom". "More importantly, we can't be free until we live, in some sense, for others", he further emphasized.

February 13, 2001 volume 12, no. 44 USA News www.DailyCatholic.org