More than 40 years ago a man walked unannounced into my office in Edmonton when I was the young editor of the Western Catholic Reporter. He began to talk about northern development, and I gathered he was unimpressed with the Canadian Catholic bishops’ stand on the issue.

I had no idea why he came to visit me. Had I written something that upset him? If so, he didn’t say that. Certainly, he wanted me to know that the path forward for Indigenous people involved more than protecting their traditional ways. It also ought to include education and the opportunity for employment.

He had worked in the North and thus had on-the-ground experience. The man stayed for 20 or 30 minutes, and we had a congenial discussion. Then he left, returning a few more times for similar chats while I was editor. 

His name was Robert Carney who today is mainly known as the father of Mark Carney, current candidate for the federal Liberal leadership and former governor of the central banks of Canada and England. Through our discussions, I learned that Bob was a former school superintendent in the North and at the time of our meetings an education professor at the University of Alberta. He was a person of note in his own right.

Bob was well versed in Catholic social teaching and had thought through its practical implications. It was only when he died about 15 years ago that I learned he had also been executive director of the Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association and had served on the board of Newman Theological College. He was a serious contributor in the Catholic community.

Recently, I have begun reading his son Mark’s 2021 book, Value(s): Building a Better World for All. It is not an easy read. While the younger Carney does not mention Catholic social teaching, its influence is evident. Like father, like son. He does not accept the ideology of market fundamentalism, which assumes that if financial markets are allowed to run their course without outside influence, all people will experience prosperity and happiness. He even dares to assert that financial wealth and happiness are not the same thing.

Mark Carney maintains that the values of economic dynamism and efficiency should be joined with those of solidarity, fairness, responsibility and compassion. All popes since the First World War (and perhaps some before that) have said much the same.

This is a prelude to say I was astonished to read Anna Farrow’s article in the Jan. 26 Register, “The Catholic or the Davos Man?” Farrow characterizes Carney as the quintessence of the “Davos man” which she goes on to describe as “a term that describes a wealthy global ‘elite’ who prioritizes their own interests over the common good and often describes people who attend the World Economic Forum, or WEF, in Davos.”

The article goes on to list Carney’s involvements with international organizations, including the Vatican’s Steering Committee of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism. After a brief summation of the goals of the steering committee, Farrow concludes, “it is apparent that alignment with WEF and UN principles trump that of Catholic teaching.”

I strongly suspect recent popes would disagree. As well, it is all too easy to slam people involved in global forums as “prioritizing their own interests over the common good.” In his book, Carney argues strongly, at length and with evidence that such a priority is the source of much of the world’s current woes.

The headline on the story was what most set me back: “The Catholic or the Davos Man?” Are the two possibilities mutually exclusive? Is it impossible for a person of faith, knowledge and intelligence to engage the secular world without committing apostasy? 

Catholic teaching holds that lay people, precisely because of their lay character, have opportunities to bring the Gospel to bear on the secular world in ways clergy cannot. We can exert a humanizing effect on the world, and we are urged to do so.

Some places we go may be dark, and it may be difficult to be a faithful witness. Yet, I doubt the WEF and George Soros are as dark as some want us to believe. However, if we are serious lay Catholics, we ought to go anywhere, even into politics. In my view, Carney should be applauded for showing how Catholics can witness rather than be critiqued for attempting to live out the Gospel.