Holy See urges people-centred development in fighting evils of urbanization

(Vatican)  While increasing urbanization brings us physically and ‎economically closer together in cities, it often simultaneously accelerates social, cultural, religious and ‎economic isolation, segregation and generates other evils. What is needed is a renewed commitment to promote people-‎centered integral ‎development and eliminate the fear of the other. ‎  Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Holy ‎See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in New York, made the suggestion on Friday at a ‎conference on “People-Centered Urbanization: Managing Ethnic Diversity in Today’s Cities” at the ‎UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).   The event was organized to mark the UN’s first ‎‎“World Cities Day”, Oct. 31.   Archbishop Auza noted that while cities offer tremendous opportunities, ‎the context of big cities also breeds various forms of corruption and criminal activities, like human ‎trafficking, the drug trade and drug abuse, the exploitation of the weak.  To counteract these evils, ‎people-centered integral development is needed, not only to address necessary economic and political ‎development, but also to promote authentic human development through promoting cultural, spiritual, ‎social and physical development.  Noting that migration-driven mega-cities give birth to vast slums, ‎which are areas of lawlessness, greater marginalization and socio-economic inequality, the Holy See ‎representative said cooperation and solidarity are needed to integrate people from various backgrounds.  ‎One must move away from the fear of the other, of the new people in the block, towards attitudes ‎based on a culture of encounter, he said.‎