Holy See: Development policies must put the human person at the centre

By Lisa Zengarini

The Holy See has renewed its call for advancing a model of development that has the “human person at its centre” and promotes human flourishing, in all dimensions and in every stage of life.

Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the Vatican Permanent Observer to the United Nations made this appeal at the 56th Session of the UN Commission for Population and Development taking place this week in New York on the theme “Population, Education, and Sustainable Development.”

Fertility reduction strategies don't contribute to development

The Nuncio noted that, unfortunately, “Many development policies continue to reflect a view of the human person either as an obstacle to development or as a means of production to be exploited according to principles of profit and efficiency maximization”. However, he said, policies that view population growth as a disruptive force to contain using fertility reduction strategies “are at odds with the inherent dignity of the human person”, and contribute to what Pope Francis has called a “throwaway culture”. 

Education true antidote to poverty

Archbishop Caccia instead highlighted the importance of education as a key factor for human development and “an effective antidote to poverty and social exclusion.” Hence, the urgent need, he said, “for a renewed commitment to educational models that uphold the intrinsic purpose of education, which is to allow each person to realize his or her full potential, assimilate fundamental values and virtues, and, on those foundations, shape his or her own future.”

Role of parents  in education irreplaceable 

In this regard, the Vatican Observer stressed the “irreplaceable and inalienable” role of parents in educating their children, which cannot therefore be entirely delegated to other actors and institutions in society. Yet, he noted, “certain ideologies portray parents as a barrier to the personal fulfilment and wellbeing of their children” and consequently deny their “prior right” to choose the kind of education that shall be given to them.

“This becomes even more concerning – he noted - when children are exposed, without any appropriate direction and guidance from parents and legal guardians, to educational programs that relativize and trivialize the very experience of love.”

Concluding, Archbishop Caccia reiterated the Holy See’s commitment to actively promote universal “access to a quality education consonant with the dignity of the human person and our common vocation to fraternity”.