In the last 150 years, humanity has made a real civilisational revolution: the scientific and technological progress not only resulted in increasing production and consequent economic growth, but also extended average life expectancy and increased the planet population almost five times. Yet, it has become evident that the economic growth does not directly correlate with the life quality and the sense of happiness. The gap between rich and poor, between "us" and "them" has become a real stigma of the XXI century. In 1967, Pope Paul VI in his Encyclical "Populorum Progressio" introduced the concept of integral human development that emphasises importance of an integral approach to the human needs and states that "development cannot be limited to mere economic growth. In order to be authentic, it must be complete: integral, that is, it has to promote the good of every person and of the whole person" (PP, 14). Even after fifty years these words have not lost their significance, especially for the contemporary Ukrainians that continue to seek reliable grounds for building a better society. Analysing the rich tradition of social teaching of the Catholic Church and based on our professional expertise, our team of scholars from the Ukrainian Catholic University proposes to prepare the collective monograph entitled "Integral Human Development: Mapping for Ukraine ". We believe that it is high time to popularise the concept of integral human development in Ukraine and our proposal is to "translate" the philosophical and theological heritage of the papal encyclicals, letters, and other documents of the CC into a language of those in whose hands the future of the Ukrainian policies, institutions and practices are.
Orysia Bila, director of the Department of Philosophy at UCU. Photo: The Ukrainians