The development of peoples - Populorum Progressio

The 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter Populorum Progressio, which was released on March 26, 1967, passed by largely unnoticed, which is a great pity because it is still very topical. Now, at last, it was the theme of the Second World Congress of Ecclesial Organisations working for Justice and Peace, held in Rome between June 21-23.

Pope Paul VI said that "development is the new name for peace" (Part II, section 4). He recognised that peace is not merely the absence of war but also the existence of justice between nations and people. As Gandhi had said: "Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds."

The Pope also widened the concept of solidarity and justice when he wrote: "The same duty that rests on individuals exists also for nations: it is the very serious duty of the developed nations to help the under-developed" (paragraph 48).

The situation the letter describes is, in 2007, alas, still more or less the same as when it came out in 1967: 850 million people go to bed hungry; one billion people today lack access to safe drinking water; 10 million children will die this year before their fifth birthday.

The efforts and sacrifices of so many people and agencies are often more than brought to nothing by corruption by both local and foreign interests, expenditure on arms, deforestation and desertification followed by drought, never ending civil and tribal wars, and so many other negative factors.

These are causing the mass exodus of people from their countries, an exodus being callously used by traffickers in human beings.

The earth is for the use of all I was impressed in the letter by the Pope's constant use of a social principle that is found right from the earliest Christian writers, the Fathers of the Church, based as it is in the Bible. It is a principle that shocks those who think only of the Catholic Church as the defender of private property:

"God intended the earth and all it contains for the use of all men and peoples, so created goods should flow fairly to all, regulated by justice and accompanied by charity" (par. 22). As we shall see, this principle will be repeated quite often.

The encyclical places the ultimate reason for inequality squarely in the moral sphere: "The world is sick. Its illness consists less in the unproductive monopolisation of resources by a small number of men than in the lack of brotherhood among individuals and peoples" (par. 66).

The ultimate reason is in the order of morality because most inequality is caused by greed or, as the Pope put it, "a system has been constructed which considers profit as the key motive for economic progress, competition as the supreme law of economics, and private ownership of the means of production as an absolute right that has no limits and carries no corresponding social obligation" (par. 26).

The Pope disagrees with those who think that development will automatically lead to a trickling down of wealth to lower levels of society. There must be the moral conscience that works, by means of laws if necessary, for an equal distribution of the benefits of development.

The Pope states: "It is not sufficient to increase overall wealth; it must be distributed equally... Economics and technology have no meaning except from man whom they should serve" (par. 34).

Here we meet another basic principle of Catholic social teaching, which is that everything is meant to serve human beings, who are the supreme value after God. This is the reason why the Pope does not merely call for human development but for "man's complete development and the development of all mankind" (par. 5). This is what the Pope called "complete humanism" (par. 42).

Pope Paul also spells out once again, as he did earlier, the old Catholic moral principle that surprises so many who think that the Church only defends private property: "Private property does not constitute for anyone an absolute and unconditional right" (par. 23).

Private property is relative, never absolute. Every owner of private property is to use it not only for his own benefit but also for that of others. Here he applies this principle to a different area when he goes on: "No one is justified in keeping for his exclusive use what he does not need, when others lack necessities" (par. 23).

Some suggestions

The Pope made numerous suggestions, like industrialisation, programmes and development plans, reform of institutions, and the marriage between traditional civilizations and industrial civilization. Among the suggestions the Pope made was that of aid.

"It should be considered quite normal for an advanced country to devote part of its production to meet the needs of under-developed countries, and to train teachers, engineers, technicians and scholars prepared to put their knowledge and skill at the disposal of less fortunate people."

This shows that rich nations should be prepared to help under-developed ones directly but also indirectly by teaching them to help themselves. Both suggestions are being carried out, though not fully: the G8 nations pledged help at Gleneagles, though not all carried out their promise, at least to the full, and have once again promised help at the recent meeting in Heiligendamm.

There is also no need to mention the many selfless individuals and organisations, both Church-related and not, which are working for the development of peoples in numerous small ways and in larger ones.

Already hinted at in the second part of this quotation, another suggestion is the need for education, which one could say has made huge progress in some countries, like India. An educated people will not only be better prepared to use modern technology and methods for development but also be less likely to be exploited.

The Pope wrote: "Basic education is the primary object of any plan of development. Indeed, hunger for education is no less debasing than hunger for food; an illiterate is a person with an undernourished mind" (par. 35).

Of course, the 40 years that have passed since the encyclical was written has seen new problems crop up, or rather the consciousness about certain problems has grown. The very development the Pope was urging has made more serious the depletion of the world's resources, along with environment and climate change, which is forecast to effect most adversely the poor of the earth.

The encyclical already denounces the source of the crisis when it lays the blame on a restrained profit motive. It is the rich countries that pollute most, causing global warming, but its consequences will be suffered much more by the less polluting peoples.

I have used numerous quotations to let the Pope speak for himself and to invite readers to refer to an encyclical, which is still relevant today, 40 years after it was written.