(Vatican Radio) In collaboration with the International Catholic Rural Life Association,
the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace hosted the IV World Congress on Rural
Life, which concluded on Wednesday. The theme of the Congress was “Evolution and problems
of the rural world facing the challenges of globalisation”.
“We’re really examining
the status of rural life all over the world, and especially we’ve also been talking
about the impact of globalisation, and also the great environmental challenges that
are now affecting rural populations and the rural communities all over the world,”
said Jesuit Father Roberto Yap, the president of Xavier University in the Philippines,
who is participating in the Congress. “We’re also very interested in really trying
to discern what Catholic presence is, and how we can really preach the Gospel for
rural communities and also have a real pastoral presence among rural communities all
over the world.”
The Congress comes fifty years after the First International
Meeting of Catholics on Rural Life held in 1962 to explore and deepen the thrust of
the then recently published encyclical letter Mater et Magistra issued by Blessed
Pope John XXIII.
Marking Mater et Magistra’s fiftieth anniversary, the Congress
took up Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in veritate, and discussed issues currently
facing Catholics in today’s world, which is rapidly becoming more globalized. The
Congress aimed at developing and applying Catholic Social teaching in order to reveal
a coordinated path for the future, and strengthen the Church’s commitment to the rural
agricultural sector.
Father Yap told Vatican Radio about the importance of
supporting rural life: “I think that to realize that there really is a real value
for people who till the earth, and who grow food and grow fibre, and use these resources
to provide very basic needs like food and clothing to people. And this is a very integral
part and that we should be maintaining these communities, and recognise their contribution
to the flourishing of the human society itself.”
You can listen to the complete
interview of Father Roberto Yap with Christopher Wells: