持続可能な開発とバチカンの対応
教皇フランシスコは2019年3月「宗教と持続可能な発展」をテーマとした国際会議の参加者と会っている。教皇庁人間開発省の主催で「宗教と持続可能な発展：地球と貧しい人の叫びに耳を傾ける」をテーマとした国際会議が、3月7日から9日までバチカンで開催された。そこで教皇フランシスコは、3月8日、同会議の参加者と会談した。この出会いで教皇は、地球と貧しい人々が不正によって苦しめられている今日の現状を変えるために、闘い続けることが重要である、と参加者らを励ました。
持続可能性について話す時、より広範な人々の参加を得たプロセスを構築するため、できるだけ多くの意見や提案を聞くことが大切と教皇は述べた。実際、発展という定義は複雑なものであり、それを経済的・物理的観点からのみ考えるならば、自然や人間から搾取することは避けられない、と話した。
今、人類の発展は、誤ったモデルから脱し、他の道を自由と責任をもって選択することを必要としている、と述べた教皇は、自然の叫び、貧しい人々の叫びに具体的に答えるために、また、地球の未来を築く真の対話を推進するために、宗教はそのすべての倫理的価値をもって奉仕しなければならない、と説いた。
このような教皇のメッセージはバチカン自身の改革の方向性を示すものであると同時に、先進国と途上国との発展の格差や国内での貧富の差に悩む世界にとって一つの倫理的規範を提示している。
Fast forward to 2019 and the Pope was in the Vatican where he greeted participants taking part in a two day international conference entitled, "Religions and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) : Listening to the cry of the earth and of the poor"
Listening to all I voices
Pope Francis got straight to the point by telling those gathered that, "when we speak of sustainability, we cannot overlook how important it is to include and to listen to all voices, especially those usually excluded from this type of discussion, such as the voices of the poor, migrants, indigenous people and the young."
The 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, the Pope said, "were a great step forward for global dialogue, marking a vitally new and universal solidarity". But he noted, "for too long, the conventional idea of development has been almost entirely limited to economic growth."
The Pontiff emphasized that, "this has led the modern economic system down a dangerous path where progress is assessed only in terms of material growth, on account of which we are almost obliged to irrationally exploit the environment and our fellow human beings."
Economic and political objectives, Pope Francis stressed, "must be sustained by ethical objectives, which presuppose a change of attitude: what the Bible would call a change of heart. Already Saint John Paul 11 spoke about the need to "encourage and support an 'ecological conversion'", he said.
The Pope underlined that what was needed was a commitment to "promoting and implementing the development goals that are supported by our deepest religious and ethical values." He also expressed the hope that concrete solutions and responses would emerge from the conference.
Religious Dimension
Noting the importance of the religious dimension to this gathering, Pope Francis said that "those of us who are religious need to open up the treasures of our best traditions in order to engage in a true and respectful dialogue on how to build the future of our planet."
The Pontiff also underlined, that "if we want to provide a solid foundation for the work of the 2030 Agenda, "we must reject the temptation to look for a merely technocratic response to the challenges, and be prepared to address the root causes and the long-term consequences."