Archbishop Golka to Catholic Entrepreneurs at SENT Summit: ‘Get Into the Arena’
The archbishop and Arthur Brooks challenged Catholic business leaders to pursue excellence, put Christ at the center and transform their businesses into places of mission capable of renewing the culture.
Imagine bringing a squirt gun to a house fire. That wouldn’t be all that effective, would it?
That’s exactly the image Denver Archbishop James Golka invited Catholic business leaders, founders and investors to consider during a Mass of the Holy Spirit offered on Thursday morning, part of a summit sponsored by SENT, a Catholic entrepreneur movement seeking to renew culture through business.
Referencing Søren Kierkegaard’s parable of a well-loved firefighter “assisted” at a fire by squirt-gun carrying townspeople, Archbishop Golka exhorted the leaders to put themselves on the line for the sake of the Kingdom.
“We can’t stand at safety on the edge. We have to get into the arena. We are not called to run away from the world, but to engage it,” he said.
That willingness to engage the world and renew it rather than retreat from it is exactly what SENT and its summit are all about, Nick Madden, the organization’s CEO, explained.
“We form entrepreneurs in three ways. We help them live a rightly ordered life, so God first, then primary vocation, then work. Second, we help them grow great businesses and be excellent at their craft. Third, we help them make their businesses places of mission, realizing that they’re stewarding and leading souls,” he told the Denver Catholic.
(Photos by Grant Whitty, courtesy of SENT)
It’s a mission rooted in the history of the Church and the lives of the saints, who themselves acted with holy entrepreneurial courage, Madden said. Looking to Denver’s foothills, he highlighted Mother Cabrini as a perfect example. Throughout her ministry, she crossed the Atlantic repeatedly, built countless institutions, raised substantial funds, recruited hundreds of volunteers and served innumerable souls.
“There’s incredible power with this entrepreneurial spirit, but it’s not new now. That’s how the saints work,” he explained. “These are entrepreneurs and that’s been the story of the Church.”
Even as Catholic entrepreneurs meet real societal needs with faith and excellence, they are called to something higher: a new way of being in Jesus Christ.
Quoting an ancient Roman report on early Christians, Archbishop Golka noted the pagan official’s conclusion that Christians were “really a new kind of person. There is something divine in them.”
“The Latin phrase that he uses for ‘something divine in them’ says there’s something divine commingled with their humanity,” Archbishop Golka explained. “Brothers and sisters, that’s us. We ought to be a new person. This is a new way of thinking. This is a new way of acting.”
In this apostolic age, it’s necessary to flip the world’s script in order to live that sort of faithful, excellent and truly happy life, Thursday morning’s keynote speaker, Arthur C. Brooks, argued. As a Catholic social scientist who has studied the science of happiness for decades, Brooks said that this new manner of being boils down to a three-part structure that he expanded from soon-to-be Blessed Fulton Sheen: use things; love people; worship God.
“The lie the world tells you is this: if you want to be happy, love things and use people, because the world is full of these things, and they promise you everything: money, power, pleasure, fame,” Brooks said, emphasizing that this insight from the 1950s is only truer today.
“Here’s the right one: use things with abundance and gratitude. … Love people with complete abundance,” he continued. “And most importantly of all, worship the Lord every day, naturally, publicly, without embarrassment.”
For SENT members and summit attendees, this call has been transformative, as have the opportunities to connect with like-minded, faithful colleagues.
“It’s been really good to be around like-minded people trying to build businesses for the Kingdom, and doing it through a Catholic lens,” said Keegan O’Rourke, archdiocesan executive director of operations. “I’ve been struck by the energy in the room, the zeal for our Lord, and the business-minded people thinking about the culture and how to approach and engage it from a business standpoint.”
“This year’s summit has been incredible! The speakers and topics have been incredibly thoughtful,” added David DiNapoli, president of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross Foundation. “It has been a great couple of days deepening the relationships that began last year and meeting new people.”
As these entrepreneurs engage the effort to renew culture through business, they cannot do it alone, Madden emphasized. Not only do they need each other, but they need community support.
“There’s a need for Catholics to support Catholics, and that doesn’t mean just philanthropically,” he concluded. “That means practically, with everyday goods and services, and it starts local. We believe in subsidiarity, and that happens locally. I encourage Catholics to support local Catholics building businesses.”
