Conclusion: A Summary

The Participants to the Centesimus Annus Pro-Pontifice Foundations gathered for a a Seminar on Finance and the Common Good, engaging a dialogue between theological reflection and financial practice, in order to foster social concern.To be at the service of the human person, economic activity requires both an ethical and legal\r\nframework. In particular, the market can only work within an ethical framework of trust.\r\nThat ethical framework needs to be concretized in juridical norms which guarantee fair-play,\r\ncompetition and transparency. The legal framework must also ensure that economic freedom\r\nis situated within a wider system of fundamental human values, and that certain “collective\r\ngoods” (CA, #40) – including the rights of workers - are protected, and that or certain\r\nfundamental human needs which “find no place on the market” (#34) do not remain\r\nunsatisfied.