The creation of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development providentially coincided, with the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio (26 March 1967) which, through the development of the Christian viewpoint of the human person, gave substance to the notion of integral human development and also envisaged a new form of peace in development.
In a globalized and hyper-technological society, two terms of the equation (development and peace), must urgently be joined to a third: disarmament! An authentic and lasting peace cannot be conceived without the development of every person and people. Nor is a reduction of armaments conceivable, if we do not eliminate violence at its roots first, that is to say, if at first man does not decisively orient himself towards the pursuit of peace, of what is good and right.
With the Conference “Prospects for a world free from nuclear weapons and integral disarmament”, which was held from 10 to 11 November 2017, in the New Synod Hall in the Vatican, the new Dicastery wanted to make known the mission of the Church in the service of the three words mentioned above: development, peace, disarmament.
The Conference was also an opportunity to reaffirm and develop the position of the Holy See on this issue, confirming, however, the importance of ecumenical and inter-religious dialog: the Holy See, in fact, encourages, a permanent and total elimination of nuclear weapons, on the basis of the considerations that follow (and are taken from) the Message of the Pope Francis to the first session of the Conference of New York, 27-31 March 2017.
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