Beyond profit: aiming higher, for things that last
Two characters tell the story: Tom, who died a few years ago, and his wife Jeanne, who shared the experience with him. “My market sector was shrinking, and I decided it was time to start my own business with the money I had saved. That was when I heard about the economy of communion, and was immediately attracted by the prospect of providing not only for our own family, but for the needs of many throughout the world.” “Preparing and sharing food was a long tradition in the Petrucci family, so we decided to open a restaurant in Camarillo, California, called Petrucci’s.” Jeanne, who worked in the restaurant in recent years, describes how Tom managed the business. “He wanted things so that everyone who worked with him had the opportunity to better themselves. If someone had been hired to wash dishes or to drive, but wanted to improve, Tom always gave them the chance to do so. If anyone became an expert in their new job, and there was nowhere to progress, he made no attempt to keep them. Many of them had families to support and Tom wanted them to better themselves and enjoy success.” Tom wrote: “In our restaurant we try to work as if everything depends on us, while knowing that everything really depends on God. Jeanne and I know that we will never make huge profits, but we feel that by giving work to ten people, and ensuring the income of ten families, while at the same time making a contribution to reducing poverty, we have reached much bigger objectives, which are of an eternal kind.” “In a short moment of morning meditation we choose a key idea to put into practice during the day. At times I am bombarded with thousands of ideas about how to run the restaurant better, how to make more money, and so on, but unity with the others permits me to stay focused on “what really counts.” That moment spent together in the morning strengthens within my soul the decision that Jeanne and I took when we set out on this adventure: to love in the present moment and to try not to do our will, but the will of God. When we began we knew very little about how to run a restaurant. If it has been a success, it is because it is part of His plans.” “From the very first month we opened, we decided to give a monthly sum for the poor, however things went. This was an act of faith that helped us to give top priority to the importance of giving.” (Tom and Jeanne Petrucci, from L’amore come piatto principale in Economia di Comunione, quarterly, Year X/n.2, novembre 2004)
Universal brotherhood was also the project of people who were not motivated by religious motives, but simply by the desire to benefit humanity. The French Revolution’s motto: “liberty, equality, fraternity”, summarizes the great political project of modernity, a project which, in part, has been disregarded. While numerous countries have built democratic systems of government and have succeeded in achieving some degree of liberty and equality, the same cannot be said of fraternity which has been proclaimed more than it has been lived. But the one who brought fraternity as the essential gift to humanity was above all Jesus. In revealing the fatherhood of God, He broke down the walls which separate those who are “the same” from those who are “different”, friends from enemies. He loosened all people from the bonds that imprison them, from all forms of slavery and subordination, from every unjust relationship, thus carrying out an authentic existential, cultural and political revolution. (…) The instrument that Jesus offered to us in order to accomplish this universal fraternity was love, a great love, a new love, different from the one we usually know. In fact, He transplanted the way of loving of heaven here on earth. This love requires first of all that we love everyone, therefore, not only relatives and friends. It asks that we love the pleasant and the unpleasant, our fellow-countryman and the stranger, the European and the immigrant, those of our Church and of another, of our religion and of another. Today it asks the countries of Western Europe to love those of Central and Eastern Europe – and vice versa – and it asks everyone to be open to those of other continents. In the vision of its founders, in fact, Europe is a family of sister nations, not closed in itself, but open to a universal mission: Europe wants its unity to contribute, then, to the unity of the human family. This love asks that we love our enemies as well and that we forgive them if they have offended us. After the wars which stained our continent with blood, many Europeans were exemplary in loving their enemies and promoting reconciliation. Therefore, the love I am speaking of makes no distinctions and takes into consideration all those we meet in any moment, directly or indirectly: those who are next to us physically, but also those about whom we or others are speaking; those who will receive the work we do day by day, those we come to know about through the newspapers or television…. Because this is the way God our Father loves, making the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causing the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike (cf Mt 5:45). (…) Furthermore, the love that Jesus brought is not an idealistic, sentimental love, made up of words. It is a concrete love. It needs to be expressed with deeds. And this is possible if we make ourselves all things to all people: sick with those who are sick; joyful with those who are joyful; worried, insecure, hungry, poor with others, feeling in ourselves what they feel and acting accordingly.
Puebla – 26/3 Cultural Event, with the participation of various cultural experts, people of other faiths and from the world of art. 
The experiences shared by families from five different continents were very moving during the climax of the World Meeting for Families promoted by the Pontifical Council for Families. From Africa, the Simango family, mother, father and their twins, 14 years old, shared, how even though they live in an environment permeated by traditional values, consumerism and the media can easily impose other models and even revoke their precious values and traditions. They shared how important it is to educate our children with respect for traditions, but at the same time, remain open… Dennis (father) Just as in many countries in Africa, the cost of living in our country is continually rising, while the salaries remain the same. As a consequence, more and more people are living below the poverty line. Our shops are full of modern, fancy products: toys, the latest fashions in clothes, cell phones etc., and the advertisements entice us to buy them. And so, instead of trying to combat poverty by creating new opportunities for development, people are getting carried away by these things; but they are frustrated because they cannot afford to buy them. As parents we feel that it is our duty to teach our children to distinguish between what is and what is not essential for living, for example all those things which they impulsively would like to have. We try to make them aware that technology cannot be a substitute for respecting the things we have, and that we should acquire something new only when it is necessary. But more than just speaking about it we do this by all of us together drawing on the words of the Gospel. One evening together with the children we spoke about those words of Jesus when He said: “Whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me”. The following day we spontaneously shared with each other how we tried to put these words into practice, and we saw how each of us was able to share something with the others, with the intention of sharing it with Jesus. During my lunch break I helped a student who was having some difficulties; my wife gave some rice to a neighbour who didn’t have any; one of the children lent her pencil and the other lent his eraser to their school companions. When we spoke among ourselves about what we had done the happiest of all were the children who had understood that we don’t need to be rich in order to be able to share. Margaret (14 years) In the boarding school we are only provided with basic meals and these are not always sufficient. Last year many of my school companions complained about being hungry and I often gave them what I had brought from home. When I came home for the holidays my mother noticed that I had lost a lot of weight. When she got to know the reason for this she advised me not to give away what I needed, but she gave me something extra so that I could continue to share with the others. Modesta (mother) In our culture sharing is considered to be a very important value, as an ancient African proverb says: “… unlike a piece of cloth, food is never too little to be shared.” But because of the influence of the media, many have begun to think that it is wiser to keep whatever they have for themselves. Another danger which stems from an uncontrolled use of television are the soap operas and the imported cartoons which propose models which are very far from our own culture, especially regarding consumerism and the relationship between men and women. We have rules in our family, for example no TV during school and only two hours each day during weekends or holidays, being careful about what programmes the children watch. We get a DVD of their choice – making sure that the content is good – which we then share with other families with whom we are linked in our own city and in the rural areas. But above all we speak with the children about what they have seen, so as to awaken a good critical sense in them, “that you may discern – as St. Paul teaches – what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect”(Rm 12,2). Mario (14 years) Whenever I was in school I couldn’t wait for the moment to return home so as to be able to spend all the time I wanted in front of the TV. But speaking with my family I understood that this wasn’t true freedom and that sometimes the TV can be a trap. In this way I learned how I could avoid turning on the TV, even for days. Modesta You, oh Mary, who are Queen of Africa, you know that it is a land rich with resources, but burdened with enormous problems: poverty, malnutrition, AIDS, epidemics, conflicts and wars. Bring forth among us wise leaders and keep us faithful to that culture of life which our fathers taught us. The good news of the Gospel is that compendium of human and Christian values which makes us your children and through which we become new men and women. Help us to live it and to transmit it to our children.