Addressing a recent forum on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a Vatican diplomat acknowledged that “economic growth has been real and has lifted billions out of extreme poverty,” but said that such growth “is marred by serious dysfunctions such as increasing inequalities (both between and within countries) and new forms of poverty.”
Msgr. Marco Formica, interim chargé d’affaires of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, said on July 13 that “for the international community to deliver on the sustainable development, it must combat these disfunctions. In this regard, my Delegation wishes to reiterate that every truly just society is built upon the recognition of the inviolable dignity of the human person.”
“Such dignity precedes any concession by the State and cannot be subordinated to shifting social consensus,” he continued, as he quoted from a recent address by Pope Leo. “This conviction must underpin every urgent and transformative action.”