Governments in the Asia-Pacific region should prioritise structural justice and youth empowerment so the region can progress to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, Catholic leaders said at a regional gathering. Source: UCA News.
Achieving the goals requires a commitment to advancing human dignity amid growing inequality, ecological degradation, and geopolitical instability, as the Catholic Church promotes, according to a media release from the Catholic Social Forum Asia-Pacific.
Their concerns align with the Catholic Social Teachings set forth in Dilexi Te (I have loved you), the apostolic exhortation of Pope Leo XIV on Love for the Poor.
The forum brought together 40 Catholic leaders, youth representatives, and development advocates from across the Asia-Pacific region in Bangkok, Thailand, on February 27.
The event was organised by regional networks of the International Movement of Catholic Students Pax Romana, International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs Pax Romana, International Young Catholic Students and International Youth Training Centre.
The participants described the region as standing at a critical juncture, with progress in some development indicators overshadowed by persistent structural injustice and environmental decline, the release said.
Keynote speakers at the gathering called for effective efforts to converge faith and global action.
“We must read the signs of the times and design what we are called to do as Christians,” Anslemo Lee, Vice President of ICMICA Asia Pacific, said in his speech, underscoring the urgent responsibility to engage both the Church and the United Nations amid geopolitical tensions and global uncertainty.
Fr Jojo Fung SJ, a professor of Loyola School of Theology at Ateneo de Manila University said the Sustainable Development Goals should be anchored in “a spirituality of love and justice” which is at the heart of Dilexi Te: “To be holy today is to be near to the poor.”
The Catholic Social Forum was launched in 2004 alongside the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India, as a platform for coordinated Catholic engagement in global social justice discourse.
FULLS TORY
Asian Catholic leaders stress justice for sustainable development (UCA News)
