Holy See to UN: Strengthening families key to eradicating global poverty
April 3, 2014: Greater support for families, the basic building block of society,
is key to eradicating global poverty. Obstinacy in recognizing “the obvious role of
the family in eradicating poverty and addressing its causes with family-sensitive
policies that bolster the stability of this most fundamental of societal institutions
is highly irresponsible and ultimately counter-productive on the part of governments”.
This was the message at the heart of the address delivered to the UN this week by
Holy See representative, Archbishop Francis A. Chullikatt.
The Archbishop’s
intervention was part of the tenth Session of the Open Working Group on the Sustainable
Development Goals titled: “Poverty Eradication and Promoting Equality.
Below
please find the full text of Archbishop Chullikatt’s address:
Intervention
of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations Tenth Session
of the Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals: “Poverty Eradication
and Promoting Equality”. New York, 31 March 2014
Mr. Co-Chair, The importance
that all States place on poverty eradication is abundantly manifest from the opening
lines of The Future We Want, which unequivocally considers poverty eradication to
constitute “the greatest global challenge facing the world today” and “an indispensable
requirement for sustainable development.”[1] The Holy See, which actively participated
in this negotiated outcome, stands resolutely with all of you in this conviction.
Pope Francis wrote recently that “[t]he need to resolve the structural causes of poverty
cannot be delayed, not only for the pragmatic reason of its urgency for the good order
of society, but because society needs to be cured of a sickness which is weakening
and frustrating it, and which can only lead to new crises.”[2] Fortunately, in
this regard we do not need to reinvent the wheel. Through trial-and-error, society
itself has developed what the Secretary-General calls its own “basic building block”:[3]
the family. It is within the family that the next generation of humanity is welcomed,
fed, clothed, and provided for. Setting a development agenda for the next 15 years
is a powerful gesture of intergenerational solidarity. The future we want becomes,
then, the future we want for our children and our children’s children. In the very
paragraph where Rio + 20 decided to launch this intergovernmental process, it is extremely
instructive to note how it immediately stressed that “we will also consider the need
for promoting intergenerational solidarity for the achievement of sustainable development,
taking into account the needs of future generations, including by inviting the Secretary
General to present a report on this issue.”[4] The Secretary-General has not been
remiss in this regard. In numerous reports,[5] he highlights the centrality of the
family for poverty eradication and sustainable development. “The family,” he rightly
observes, “remains the basic societal unit of reproduction, consumption, asset-building
and – in many parts of the world – production.”[6] My delegation recognizes that it
can be irksome for some, as Pope Francis has also acknowledged, “when the question
of ethics is raised, when global solidarity is invoked… [and even, at times, that]
these issues are exploited by a rhetoric which cheapens them.” Nevertheless, obstinacy
in recognizing the obvious role of the family in eradicating poverty and addressing
its causes with family-sensitive policies that bolster the stability of this most
fundamental of societal institutions is highly irresponsible and ultimately counter-productive
on the part of governments. Recognizing, as does Rio + 20, that “people are at
the centre of sustainable development”[7] one does not need to look far for those
who are the most urgently affected by the scourge of poverty and hunger, namely: women,
children and the youth. To these, the Secretary-General recommends adding, as a post-2015
development priority, the family. This is a recommendation my delegation can wholeheartedly
support. With him, we call upon States to recognize that that adding the family as
a cross-cutting priority to the post-2015 development agenda could constitute “a progressive
step”,[8] since this is currently insufficiently addressed in this process. Pope
Benedict XVI considered charity to be “the principle not only of micro-relationships
(with friends, with family members or within small groups) but also of macro-relationships
(social, economic and political ones)”.[9] To this, his successor, Pope Francis, adds:
“I beg the Lord to grant us more politicians who are genuinely disturbed by the state
of society, the people, the lives of the poor! It is vital that government leaders
and financial leaders take heed and broaden their horizons.”[10] Thank you, Mr.
Co-Chair.