At 11:30am today, in the Synod Hall at the Vatican, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience those who are participating in a Conference organized by the Dicastery for Service of Integral Human Development on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Encyclical Populorum progressio. The meeting began yesterday and is concluding today.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Thank you for your invitation and for your welcome. I thank you for your presence and for your work in the scope of human development and the common good. I thank Cardinal Turkson for his words of greeting and for having initiated - not without difficulty - the new Dicastery for Service of Integral Human Development. This has been a model of perseverance - in peace, creativity, consultation - truly a model of ecclesial construction. Thank you, Your Eminence.
You have come together for this International Conference because the birth of this new Dicastery corresponds significantly with the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Encyclical Populorum progressio written by Blessed Paul VI. It was he who pointed out in detail - in the Encyclical - the significance of integral development (PP, 21), and it was he who proposed the synthesis of a successful formula: the development of every man and of every part of man (PP, 14).
What does it mean, today and in the near future, to say integral development - that is, the development of every man and of every part of man? In the footsteps of Paul VI, perhaps in the very verb to integrate - which is so dear to me - we can identify a fundamental orientation for the new Dicastery. Let us examine some of these aspects together.
It is a matter of integrating various peoples of the earth. The duty of solidarity obliges us to seek ways of fair sharing, for there is dramatic inequality between those who have much and those who have nothing, between those who discard and those who are discarded. Only the path of integration between people who are open to the good of all humanity can afford a future of peace and hope.
It is a matter of offering practical models of social integration. Everyone has a contribution to offer to the entirety of society, everyone has a gift that can help us to live together, no one is excluded from the possibility of doing something for the good of all. This is both a right and a duty. It is the principle of subsidiarity that guarantees the need to welcome everyone's gifts - either as individuals or as groups - who want to create a human society that is open to all.
It is also a matter of integrating into the development all the elements that make for true development. Various systems: economic, financial, conditions of work, culture, family life, religion; each of these is in and of itself, an undeniable opportunity for this growth. No one of these can act on its own and none of them can be excluded from the concept of integral human development, which takes into account the fact that human life is like an orchestra that sounds good if various instruments are in tune with each other and follow a score that is shared by all the parts.
It is also a matter of integrating individual and communitarian dimensions. It is undeniable that we are children of a culture - at least in the Western world - which has exalted the individual to the point that each person is like an island, as if we can be happy on our own. On the other hand, there is no shortage of ideological visions and political power which have crushed the person, standardized him and deprived him of the freedom without which man cannot any longer feel human.
Interest in the world of such luxury has also been expressed by various economic powers who aim to take advantage of globalization, instead of encouraging greater sharing among men, simply in order to create a global market where they themselves determine the rules and reap the profits. Individuals and the community are not competing with one another but individuals can only mature in the presence of authentic inter-personal relationships which are possible within a community setting when all its elements - for the good of each and every one - are present. This applies even more to the family unit, which is the primary cell of society and in which we learn to live together.
Finally, it isa matter of integration between body and soul. Paul VI wrote that development cannot be reduced to a simple matter of economic growth (cf PP, 14); development does not consist in always having more and more goods at our disposition, in order to provide a state of wellbeing that is solely material. Integrating body and soul also means that no effort toward development can truly reach its intended scope if it does not respect the place in which God is present to us, from where he speaks to our hearts.
God made himself fully known in Jesus Christ: in Him, God and man cannot be divided or separated. God made himself man in order to make human life, both personal and social, a concrete path to salvation. In this way, the manifestation of God in Christ - including his gestures of healing, granting freedom, reconciliation which today we are called to propose to the many who lay injured on the roadsides - points out the path and the mode of service which the Church intends to offer to the world: in this light, we can understand the meaning of integral development, which does wrong to neither God nor man, for it includes the consistency of both.
In this sense, the very concept of person, born and matured in Christianity, helps us to pursue the concept of full human development, so that people will always say relationship, not individualism; they will always affirm inclusion and not exclusion; they will speak of unique and inviolable dignity, not exploitation; freedom, not coercion.
The Church never grows tired of offering this wisdom and her works to the world, knowing that integral development is the path of good that the human family is called to pursue. I invite you to continue this action with patience and constancy, trusting that the Lord will accompany you. May He bless you and may Our Lady protect you. Thank you.
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
addressed to participants taking part in the
conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of
the Encyclical Populorum Progressio
Dear brothers and sisters,
Thank you for your invitation and for your welcome. I thank you for your presence and for your work in the scope of human development and the common good. I thank Cardinal Turkson for his words of greeting and for having initiated - not without difficulty - the new Dicastery for Service of Integral Human Development. This has been a model of perseverance - in peace, creativity, consultation - truly a model of ecclesial construction. Thank you, Your Eminence.
You have come together for this International Conference because the birth of this new Dicastery corresponds significantly with the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Encyclical Populorum progressio written by Blessed Paul VI. It was he who pointed out in detail - in the Encyclical - the significance of integral development (PP, 21), and it was he who proposed the synthesis of a successful formula: the development of every man and of every part of man (PP, 14).
What does it mean, today and in the near future, to say integral development - that is, the development of every man and of every part of man? In the footsteps of Paul VI, perhaps in the very verb to integrate - which is so dear to me - we can identify a fundamental orientation for the new Dicastery. Let us examine some of these aspects together.
It is a matter of integrating various peoples of the earth. The duty of solidarity obliges us to seek ways of fair sharing, for there is dramatic inequality between those who have much and those who have nothing, between those who discard and those who are discarded. Only the path of integration between people who are open to the good of all humanity can afford a future of peace and hope.
It is a matter of offering practical models of social integration. Everyone has a contribution to offer to the entirety of society, everyone has a gift that can help us to live together, no one is excluded from the possibility of doing something for the good of all. This is both a right and a duty. It is the principle of subsidiarity that guarantees the need to welcome everyone's gifts - either as individuals or as groups - who want to create a human society that is open to all.
It is also a matter of integrating into the development all the elements that make for true development. Various systems: economic, financial, conditions of work, culture, family life, religion; each of these is in and of itself, an undeniable opportunity for this growth. No one of these can act on its own and none of them can be excluded from the concept of integral human development, which takes into account the fact that human life is like an orchestra that sounds good if various instruments are in tune with each other and follow a score that is shared by all the parts.
It is also a matter of integrating individual and communitarian dimensions. It is undeniable that we are children of a culture - at least in the Western world - which has exalted the individual to the point that each person is like an island, as if we can be happy on our own. On the other hand, there is no shortage of ideological visions and political power which have crushed the person, standardized him and deprived him of the freedom without which man cannot any longer feel human.
Interest in the world of such luxury has also been expressed by various economic powers who aim to take advantage of globalization, instead of encouraging greater sharing among men, simply in order to create a global market where they themselves determine the rules and reap the profits. Individuals and the community are not competing with one another but individuals can only mature in the presence of authentic inter-personal relationships which are possible within a community setting when all its elements - for the good of each and every one - are present. This applies even more to the family unit, which is the primary cell of society and in which we learn to live together.
Finally, it isa matter of integration between body and soul. Paul VI wrote that development cannot be reduced to a simple matter of economic growth (cf PP, 14); development does not consist in always having more and more goods at our disposition, in order to provide a state of wellbeing that is solely material. Integrating body and soul also means that no effort toward development can truly reach its intended scope if it does not respect the place in which God is present to us, from where he speaks to our hearts.
God made himself fully known in Jesus Christ: in Him, God and man cannot be divided or separated. God made himself man in order to make human life, both personal and social, a concrete path to salvation. In this way, the manifestation of God in Christ - including his gestures of healing, granting freedom, reconciliation which today we are called to propose to the many who lay injured on the roadsides - points out the path and the mode of service which the Church intends to offer to the world: in this light, we can understand the meaning of integral development, which does wrong to neither God nor man, for it includes the consistency of both.
In this sense, the very concept of person, born and matured in Christianity, helps us to pursue the concept of full human development, so that people will always say relationship, not individualism; they will always affirm inclusion and not exclusion; they will speak of unique and inviolable dignity, not exploitation; freedom, not coercion.
The Church never grows tired of offering this wisdom and her works to the world, knowing that integral development is the path of good that the human family is called to pursue. I invite you to continue this action with patience and constancy, trusting that the Lord will accompany you. May He bless you and may Our Lady protect you. Thank you.
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