Development isn't a Four-Letter Word

There's a lot going on in this section of "Caritas in Veritate." It could be one of the parts that a reviewer said were "purposefully vague."

I don't see it that way, but I also don't think that contemporary American liberal and conservative socioeconomic philosophies are the only possible ways to think about how people live and work.

Priorities and Programs: People Matter

Maybe it's 'simplistic' to think that economic development programs are supposed to help people: individual people. Again, I don't see it that way.

If living conditions in an underdeveloped area don't give folks the shelter, food, and lack of illness it takes to get work done: it seems to be that the first priority should be improving those conditions.

"...In development programmes, the principle of the centrality of the human person ... must be preserved. The principal concern must be to improve the actual living conditions of the people in a given region ... Social concern must never be an abstract attitude. ..."
("Caritas in Veritate," 47)

"Development" isn't necessarily a bad thing, provided it's done for people: not to them.

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More posts about "Caritas in Veritate" (Charity in Truth)
"Caritas in Veritate"

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More:

• "Caritas in veritate - Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Benedict XVI"
  Pope Benedict XVI (English translation) (June 29, 2009)

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