WHAT DOES
DEVELOPMENT MEAN FOR THE CHURCH?
Peter Henriot
“Why do you church people speak out on all these socio-economic
issues? Where do you get all your leftist ideas? Aren’t you
over-stepping what should be your real business of saving souls?”
These seem to be the critical questions of some people here in Zambia
when they read the pastoral letters of our church leaders, or look at the CCJP
statements on the budget, or study the monthly “Basic Needs Basket” of the
JCTR. I’ve heard these questions expressed many times in recent years, as
the churches and faith-based organisations relate with clear analytical
examination and strong moral force to the situations in
I thought of this recently when engaged in some friendly dialogue with
officials of a visiting mission of an international development agency.
Whereas these officials were focusing so strongly on what they considered
promising macro-economic indicators of “economic growth” in
POWER OF SOCIAL TEACHING
So I think it is a fair challenge to ask what it is that guides the
social justice drive of the church. Obviously, it is first and foremost
the daily contact that the church has with the people, especially with the
two-thirds of the people of
But there is another great force that pushes the churches into social
activism on behalf of the poor in this country. That is the rich wisdom
of what we call the “church’s social teaching” (CST). Bible-based and
theologically-nuanced, this CST provides a framework for judging social
situations and motivating action to remedy injustices. We have seen
wonderful examples of this CST in the pastoral letters of the church leaders of
Right now I’m thinking especially of the significance of the CST to our
current socio-economic and political situation in
The Progress of Peoples (PP) was released just three years after
PEOPLE-CENTRED DEVELOPMENT
The first is the clear definition of exactly what “development”
means. PP came out almost three decades before the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) began challenging the orthodox view of development
with its highly respected “Human Development Index.” According to Pope
Paul VI (who was influenced by some of the best economic thinkers of his day),
authentic development is “for each and all the transition from less human
conditions to those which are more human,” since the aspirations of all women
and men, especially those who live now in poverty and misery, is “to seek to do
more, know more and have more in order to be more.” “To be more” – yes,
to be more human!
Development simply cannot be reduced to economic growth or wealth
creation. These can be helpful along the way but can never be the
measurement of true development. For development, in order to be
authentic and lasting, “must be complete: integral, that is, it has to promote the
good of every person and of the whole person.” It must be people-centred
or it is not desirable or sustainable. All those fancy economic
statistics going up are meaningless unless the people’s full living conditions
are going up!
Now you can understand why the church organisations in Zambia – and so
many like-minded NGOs – constantly speak about a “people-centred budget” or
call for greater commitment to social services such as health and education, or
demand more effective and equitable attention to eradicating
poverty. We simply have a very clear and compelling vision, from our CST,
of what development means – and we won’t be quiet about that!
REJECTION OF NEO-LIBERALISM
A second and allied teaching from The Progress of Peoples is the
strong – indeed, the radical – rejection of the “neo-liberal” model of the
economy. Listen to these words: “It is unfortunate that on these
new conditions of society 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.”
Remember, this is a Catholic pope not a Marxist revolutionary who is speaking!
Zambians know what “neo-liberalism” means as we have experienced the
most rigid, most rapid and most radical imposition of that model in the
infamous Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of the past two decades.
Just read that quotation above again, and think of the current debate about the
consequences of the secret agreements relating to the privatisation of the
copper mines.
At this very moment, the church’s cry for renegotiating those secret
agreements so that the profits of exploitation of
NOT FREE TRADE BUT FAIR TRADE
A third strong lesson from the CST of The Progress of Peoples is
very relevant right now in relating to the issue of trade and the demands
placed on Zambia and other developing countries by the World Trade Organisation
(WTO), the European Union (EU) and other trading partners. Though written
forty years ago, the document reads as if it were written today in its sharp
analyses of the inherited patterns of injustice in trading relationships (often
rooted in a colonial inheritance), the unreality of “free trade” regimes among
nations of excessive inequalities of economic power, the unfairness of
agricultural subsidies in rich countries, the need to go beyond mere market
considerations if poor countries are to move forward.
“Freedom of trade is fair,” Paul VI states bluntly, “only if it is
subject to the demands of social justice.” And this explains the church’s
strong calls right now in
ADVOCACY FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
“Why do you church people speak out on all these socio-economic
issues? Where do you get all your leftist ideas?” Well, I hope that
these few reflections prompted by the celebration of the fortieth anniversary
of The Progress of Peoples provide some answers to these
challenges. (More information can be found on our website: www.jctr.org.zm)
What development means for the church is human improvement in every
aspect of life and community. And we will continue to have our say and
promote our advocacy on whether policies of government, business, multi-lateral and bi-lateral organisations meet that
all-important definition!
Peter Henriot
Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection
Prepared for THE POST,