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Nigel Baker

Ambassador to the Holy See (2011-2016)

Part of UK in Holy See

22nd January 2014

Economics and the Pope

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The “other Marx”: Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising (Photo: COMECE, all rights reserved)

The World Economic Forum opens every year in January in the Swiss resort of Davos. Britain, as usual, will be sending a strong delegation led by the Prime Minister. It is one of the principal opportunities during the year when government, business, journalists and thinkers can gather to discuss the state of the world’s economy – and, hopefully, find ways of improving it for the benefit of the world’s citizens.

The Holy See is not normally considered a Davos player. This year, things are different. Pope Francis generated a storm of comment with his recent apostolic letter Evangelii Gaudium, in which he launched a challenge to business and governments to rethink the globalised economic systems under which we live, with particularly sharp criticism for what he called “the economy of exclusion and inequality”.

Some even accused the Pope of being a Marxist. But as the Pope’s own ‘Marxist’, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, explained in a New Year essay: “The call to think beyond capitalism is not a struggle against the market economy or a renunciation of any economic reason”, but an invitation from the Pope to “reorder priorities” and search for “an integral approach” putting human dignity first.

Given the global impact of the Pope’s apostolic letter, it is perhaps not surprising that the Executive Chairman of the WEF, Professor Karl Schwab, invited the Pope to address participants at Davos, especially given that this year’s theme is ‘The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business”. Through his invitation, Schwab was recognising what most readers of this blog already know: that it is not just banks, business or big government that have a stake in the management of economic systems, but the rest of society too, which includes the world’s great religions.

The City of London has been working hard in recent years to attract and develop Islamic Finance, which is based on Islamic economic values. The Archbishop of Canterbury is at the forefront of debates in the UK about the proper role of a banking sector in society. The Pope, too, is therefore engaging in economic debate with his global responsibilities in mind, building on Benedict XVI’s ground breaking encyclical Caritas in Veritate of five years ago.

No Marxist would say, as the Pope did in Evangelii Gaudium, that: “business is … a vocation, and a noble vocation, provided that those engaged in it see themselves challenged by a greater meaning in life”. Addressing Davos – in his message read out by Cardinal Turkson on 21 January – Pope Francis urged politicians and businessmen to follow “an ethical approach which is truly humane”, to ensure “that humanity is served by wealth and not ruled by it”. Few would disagree, especially after the economic crises of the past several years. Who says business cannot serve the common good?

About Nigel Baker

Nigel was British Ambassador to the Holy See from 2011-2016. He presented his Credentials to Pope Benedict XVI on 9 September 2011, after serving 8 years in Latin America, as…

Nigel was British Ambassador to the Holy See from 2011-2016. He presented his Credentials to Pope Benedict XVI on 9 September 2011, after serving 8 years in Latin America, as Deputy Head of Mission in the British Embassy in Havana, Cuba (2003-6) and then as British Ambassador in La Paz, Bolivia (2007-11). In July 2016, Nigel finished his posting, and is currently back in London.

As the first British Ambassador to the Holy See ever to have a blog, Nigel provided a regular window on what the Embassy and the Ambassador does. The blogs covered a wide range of issues, from Royal and Ministerial visits to Diplomacy and Faith, freedom of religion, human trafficking and climate change.

More on Nigel’s career

Nigel was based in London between 1998 and 2003. He spent two years on European Union issues (for the UK 1998 EU Presidency and on European Security and Defence questions), before crossing St James’s Park to work for three years as The Assistant Private Secretary to His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. At St James’s Palace, Nigel worked on international issues, including the management of The Prince of Wales’s overseas visits and tours, on the Commonwealth, interfaith issues, the arts and international development.

Nigel spent much of the early part of his FCO career in Central Europe, after an initial stint as Desk Officer for the Maghreb countries in the Near East and North Africa department (1990-91). Between 1992 and 1996, Nigel served in the British embassies in Prague and Bratislava, the latter being created in 1993 after the peaceful division of Czechoslovakia into the separate Czech and Slovak Republics.

Nigel joined the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) in September 1989. Between 1996 and 1998 he took a two year academic sabbatical to research and write about themes in 18th century European history, being based in Verona but also researching in Cambridge, Paris and Naples. The research followed from Nigel’s time as a student at Cambridge (1985-88) where he read history and was awarded a First Class Honours degree, followed by his MA in 1992.

Before joining the Foreign Office, Nigel worked briefly for the Conservative Research Department in London at the time of the 1989 European election campaign.

Nigel married Alexandra (Sasha) in 1997. They have one son, Benjamin, born in Bolivia in September 2008.

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davos development economics economy encyclical pope francis reinhard marx wef

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