February 17, 2026<\/p>\n
Poverty and economic exclusion are not failures of God or fate, but failures of human responsibility. Businesses, markets, and public life must be shaped by moral obligation, not profit alone.<\/p>\n
That was the message from Rev. Albino Barrera, O.P., STL, Ph.D.<\/a>, Professor, Economics and Theology, Providence College, during his lecture, \u201cBusiness, Economic Life, and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition.\u201d Fr. Barrera was the fourth speaker in the 2025\u201326 Vincentian Chair of Social Justice Lecture Series<\/a>, and his talk, held February 9 in the D\u2019Angelo Center<\/a> on St. John\u2019s University\u2019s Queens<\/a>, NY, campus, continued the series theme, \u201cThe Catholic Intellectual Tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n Fr. Barrera referenced the passage in Matthew\u2019s Gospel that essentially states that God will provide. \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to take this particular passage at face value,\u201d he observed, positing how one explains it to a mother trying to feed her family, a family facing eviction, or an unhoused person. \u201cThe poverty that we witness reflects human, rather than divine, failure,\u201d he noted. \u201cWe do not live up to our divinely ordained economic obligations. We are averse to them. We fail to live up to our responsibilities because we do not appreciate how these are, in fact, stepping-stones to reaping for ourselves the gift of divine providence that even now are already available for us for the taking.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cWe are wary of taking on obligations because they demand our attention, time, and resources, and take us away from our own bigger life projects.\u201d<\/p>\n People, communities, and nations have been walking away from their obligations precisely when living up to them is most needed, Fr. Barrera explained, noting that the Scriptures demonstrate that healthy communities are built through economic obligations. He said that the Hebrew bible stressed debt forgiveness, freeing enslaved people, land restoration, prohibitions on charging interest, and leaving crops for the poor to gather.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is Deuteronomy who assures us that there will be no poor among them if only they heed and treat one another with care, and treat each other as equals,\u201d Fr. Barrera said. \u201cThis is the promise given to the chosen people.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cFailure to live up to obligations degrades and ultimately ruins communities, as in the case of the divided kingdoms of biblical Israel and Judah.\u201d<\/p>\n The crisis of the chosen people was not due to a \u201cstingy divine providence,\u201d Fr. Barrera stressed, but due to biblical Israel\u2019s failures.<\/p>\n Fr. Barrera noted that a tension between profit-driven business culture and moral responsibility has always existed. The marketplace, he offered, by design, is geared toward attaining allocative efficiency, growth, and stability.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn contrast to the marketplace, extra market mechanisms are the primary venues by which we can pursue equity, harmony, and sustainability,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need extra market mechanisms for this.\u201d<\/p>\n Moral excellence is how we communicate and reflect the goodness and perfection of God to all creation, Fr. Barrera explained. \u201cThrough moral excellence, we properly use our reason and freedom. You can see how economic obligations fit in within this moral excellence. You can\u2019t really have moral excellence without having lived up to your moral obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n Fr. Barrera noted that when companies ignore the harm they cause, notably pollution, society pays the price. Moral responsibility means accounting for those costs before regulators have to step in.<\/p>\n \u201cIn living up to our moral obligations, we are essentially communicating and reflecting to the rest of creation that element of God\u2019s goodness and perfection that we embody in our creation, in our being, and in our moral excellence,\u201d he said. If God provides through people, then business decisions, public policy, and everyday economic choices become moral acts.<\/p>\n Reflecting on Fr. Barrera\u2019s lecture, junior Liam Bolobanic, a theology<\/a> major, said, \u201cPlatforming Fr. Barrera and other speakers like this really helps St. John\u2019s emphasize its Vincentian mission<\/a> and how it pertains to the Catholic identity. It really demonstrates for myself and other attendees the richness of the Catholic intellectual tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFr. Barrera began his presentation with the foundational affirmation that God provides for us through each other,\u201d noted Rev. Patrick J. Griffin, C.M. \u201913HON, Executive Director,\u00a0Vincentian Center for Church and Society<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cWith that powerful statement, he spoke on how people live up to their moral duties through regard for the blessings of the earth and the care of one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe spoke clearly and forcefully of the need for a just approach to economics as one follows the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. Offering a clear counterargument that the only purpose of economics is profit, he stressed that economic obligations are building blocks for friendship with God.\u201d<\/p>\n