Concordance and Challenges of Catholic Social Teaching Regarding the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

The World Council of Churches and the permanent observer of the Holy See to the UN were significantly active during the negotiations prior to the adoption of Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This paper uses the five speeches of the popes at the UN to analyze the coincidences and differences of the Catholic model of development with the one derived from the 2030 Agenda. The Catholic model is synthesized in eight features: transcendent, human, integral, solidarity, charitable-true, equalizing, endogenous, and sustainable. It coincides with that of the UN in terms of the centrality of people, planet, (shared) prosperity, peace, and partnership. It offers differences by elevation when considering a transcendent and integral anthropology; a concordance in solidarity, equalizing, endogenous, and ecological; and a common basis in the values of justice and peace, although not in those of love and truth proper to Catholic social thought

Catholic social teaching · Centrality · Concordance · Economic Justice · Negotiation · Sustainable development · Global Development and Urbanization · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics · Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy