Sustainable development must put humans at the center, Vatican representative tells FAO
June 10, 2015
Speaking on June 10 to a session of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Vatican’s representative suggested that rather than speaking of “sustainable development,” the body should discuss “sustainable human development.”
Msgr. Fernando Chica Arellano explained that the FAO should promote “a development that places at the centre the human person, with his or her real capacities, limitations, peculiarities and needs, both individually and as a family.” If the human person is not at the center of plans, he said, “the resulting damage is clear and irreparable, for greater progress can never be equivalent to less humanity.”
Msgr. Chica Arellano was speaking to an FAO conference in Rome on rural poverty. He argued that any plans to break the cycle of poverty should allow for the active involvement to the poor, and plans for expansion of food production should involve agricultural workers.
Pope Francis is scheduled to meet with the participants in the FAO conference at an audience on June 11.
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