Holy See: When development loses sight of people it descends into crisis

Monsignor Daniel Pacho, Under-Secretary for Multilateral Affairs at the Vatican Secretariat of State, speaks about the importance of confronting the development crisis at a Ministerial Conference of the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Monsignor Daniel Pacho, Under-Secretary for Multilateral Affairs at the Secretariat of State, encouraged the international community to work together to overcome the development crisis facing the world today and turn it into &ldquoan opportunity to build a more fraternal and sustainable future.&rdquo His appeal came in a statement on Tuesday, October 21, at the XVI Ministerial Conference of the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva, focusing on the theme &ldquoShaping the Future: Driving Economic Transformation for Equitable, Inclusive and Sustainable Development.&rdquo

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&ldquoWhen development loses sight of the human person, it inevitably descends into crisis. The international community is currently facing precisely such a crisis: growth without equity, progress without inclusion, and wealth without true prosperity,&rdquo he said.

&ldquoDevelopment cannot be reduced to mere figures and indicators&rdquo as it is, above all, &ldquoabout people&rdquo, whose dignity needs to be upheld, &ldquoespecially those living in poverty and in dire need&rdquo. Citing Pope Leo XIV, Msgr. Pacho underlined how the international community needs to &ldquobe increasingly committed to resolving the structural causes of poverty&rdquo.

Some key areas for development

The Vatican official highlighted certain key areas that the Holy See wanted to draw attention to in the &ldquocommon commitment to advancing authentic integral development&rdquo. For example, he said that &ldquoopenness to life and respect for its sacredness are at the centre of true development&rdquo.

&ldquoAnother important condition,&rdquo he continued &ldquois religious freedom&rdquo. He emphasized how religious extremism can affect freedom of religion, but &ldquointentionally spreading religious indifference or practical atheism by countries&rdquo can also hinder human development.

The financial tools and the debt crisis

Msgr. Pacho then underscored how the development crisis has affected &ldquothe very structures intended to promote&rdquo it, including &ldquothe existing international financial architecture, which too often struggles to address the current challenges.&rdquo

Additionally, he said that the debt crisis hinders &ldquosustainable development&rdquo as it traps &ldquodeveloping countries in poverty&rdquo. The under-secretary described as &ldquounacceptable&rdquo that &ldquointerest payments are outpacing critical public expenditure&rdquo. Loans, originally intended for growth, have become in many cases &ldquoa stifling burden that drains hope from future generations,&rdquo he insisted.

Msgr. Pacho also mentioned the &ldquoecological debt&rdquo that &ldquostems from commercial imbalances that degrade the environment, as well as from the disproportionate use of natural resources, by certain countries, over long periods of time.&rdquo He reminded that in this Jubilee Year the Holy See has called states to forgive the debts of countries unable to repay them.

The issue of artificial intelligence

Another key area highlighted by Msgr. Pacho, as affecting the development crisis, is &ldquothe rapid rise of artificial intelligence&rdquo. &ldquoWhile AI has the potential to advance sustainable development, it also requires responsibility, discernment, ethical management and regulatory frameworks centred on the human person,&rdquo he emphasized. Its employment, he added, cannot &ldquoallow automatism and simulation&rdquo to replace human dignity.

Promoting hope in the world

In his speech, Msgr. Pacho also reflected on the theme of the conference, which he described as an essential &ldquoresponse of hope&rdquo - characterised by &ldquomoral courage and the decision to take a different direction&rdquo - in order to face the &ldquocurrent crisis&rdquo of the &ldquomultilateral system&rdquo.

For the Holy See, he said the words &ldquofuture,&rdquo &ldquotransformation,&rdquo and &ldquodevelopment&rdquo, all in the theme of the conference, embody this spirit of hope, as they encourage the states across the world to build a better world, address global inequalities and continue to strive for authentic human flourishing.

&ldquoThis means development that puts the human person at its center, respecting his or her God-given dignity, and advances the common good by integrating the economic, social, cultural, moral, and spiritual dimensions of well-being,&rdquo he said.

In this perspective, he added, &ldquothe work of UNCTAD, through its three pillars, stands as a beacon of hope: hope that solidarity and responsibility may transform the future, and that every person, especially the poorest, may take part in a development that is just, integral, and truly human&rdquo.

Isabella H. de Carvalho
Source: vaticannews.va/en