Subsidiarity is not always understood in its full meaning. The recent encyclical by Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (CV), provides an important contribution for understanding the integral meaning of this principle in the context of human development. Subsidiarity is the respect for freedom and aid received in order to allow development, but it is also a call to responsibility, commitment, involvement, and surrender ones self-potential and become a help to others. This idea can guide both development aid and corporate social responsibility in business. Following this line of reasoning, and as a model of subsidiarity, one of the most novel proposals of the CV document is the model of the economy of communion (EC). This concerns readily operating businesses geared toward benefit and assigning great importance to giving, gratuity, communion, and subsidiarity. These models can be a source of inspiration for achieving the desired objective of humanizing business activity.
Gregorio Guitian, "Integral Subsidiarity and Economy of Communion: Two Challenges from Caritas in Veritate," Journal of Markets & Morality 13, no. 2 (Fall 2010): 279-295