The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development was established on 17 August 2016. It is the result of a reform that merged the four former Pontifical Councils, in accordance with the will of the Holy Father Francis as expressed in the Apostolic Letter issued Motu Proprio, Humanam Progressionem.
These were the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (for the Pastoral Care of Health).
The new Dicastery is called to express the Church's concern in the areas of justice, peace and the safeguarding of creation, as well as in those relating to health and works of charity.
When the Dicastery was established, responsibility for migrants, refugees and victims of human trafficking, along with the work of listening to, accompanying and supporting those who are forced to leave their homeland or who have none, was entrusted for a five-year period to a Section placed ad tempus under the direct guidance of the Supreme Pontiff, assisted by two Under-Secretaries. Since 1 January 2023, this Section has been fully incorporated into the Dicastery.
At the request of Pope Francis, in March 2020, as the spectre of the Covid-19 pandemic was looming, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, in collaboration with other Dicasteries of the Roman Curia and other organizations, set up the Vatican Covid-19 Commission to express the Church's concern and care for the entire human family. The task of this new body, in accordance with the Holy Father's wishes, was to "prepare the future (…) with science and imagination, in order to overcome the challenge before us." For about three years, drawing on a wealth of expertise from local communities, global platforms and academic experts, the Commission worked through task forces on ecology, the economy, health, security and migration, devoting itself to analysing the socio-economic and cultural challenges of the present in order to alleviate suffering and build a future of justice for all, grounded in the awareness that "everything is interconnected." On 31 December 2022 the Commission completed its mandate, and its work has been carried forward by the Dicastery.
In 2022, the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium of Pope Francis brought to completion the reform of the Roman Curia that began with the Pontiff's election: a renewal of the Church, in continuity with the preceding Constitution Pastor Bonus, which emphasizes her missionary vocation and encourages a life of communion that gives her "the face of synodality" (P.E., Preamble, 4).
The process of renewal undergone by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development should also be understood within this framework. On the one hand, it confirms "the task of promoting the human person and his or her God-given dignity, human rights, health, justice and peace," as well as its concern for "questions relating to the economy and work, the care of creation and of the earth as our 'common home', migration and humanitarian emergencies," and the study and dissemination of the Church's social doctrine on integral human development (P.E., Art. 163). On the other hand, emphasis is placed on the service the Dicastery is called to render to "the particular Churches, the Episcopal Conferences, their regional and continental groupings, and the Eastern hierarchical structures," working with them in the field of integral human promotion. This is intended to underline the centrality of the life of communion, "which exists for mission and is itself missionary."
The Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium confirms the Dicastery's competence with regard to Caritas Internationalis, the International Catholic Migration Commission and the Apostleship of the Sea, as well as its close relationship with the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Pontifical Academy for Life.
It exercises institutional oversight of the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel and of the VAN THUÂN Foundation. The latter, named after the Vietnamese Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận, who served as President of the former Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, absorbed the assets of the Justice and Peace Foundation and of the Good Samaritan Foundation (both now dissolved).
It is also entrusted with oversight of the Populorum Progressio Fund for Latin America.
Finally, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development is the Petitioner (Actor) in the Cause for the Beatification of Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận, who was declared Venerable in 2017.