South Africa’s G20 Presidency: Catholic Bishop Calls for Inclusive Systems for World’s Vulnerable Populations

Johannesburg, 25 October, 2025 / 8:34 PM

The chairperson of the Social Action Department at the South African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) has appealed to global leaders to take bold, tangible actions that promote justice, equity, and inclusion for the world’s most vulnerable populations during the ongoing Group of Twenty (G20) Presidency in South Africa.

Bishop Thulani Victor Mbuyisa of the Catholic Diocese of Kokstad urged leaders, especially those at the G20 Presidency Summit, to embrace a system of inclusion that addresses core challenges such as child hunger, women’s health, and the debt crisis in Africa.

“Time has come to move from systems that extract and exclude to systems that feed, that heal, that liberate,” Bishop Mbuyisa said at a meeting that Catholic development entities convened at Khanya House, Pretoria.

The Thursday, October 23 meeting brought together the Justice and Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) the Faith and Food Justice Initiative (FFJI), the Coalition of Catholic Sisters of Africa, the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar, and Caritas International, who made a submission to the ongoing summit.

The Catholic Church entities emphasized that their submission to the G20 Summit aims to amplify the moral and ethical perspective of Africa’s faith communities in global economic decision-making.  

Bishop Mbuyisa outlined five key priorities that the world leaders at G20 should adopt to ensure global systems work for the common good and to solve some of the main challenges people of God in Africa are facing.

Regarding the issue of the debt crisis in Africa, the Catholic Bishop urged world leaders “to champion debt for life instruments that convert debt repayments into investments in food and health.”

The member of Mariannhill Missionaries (CMM) called on global leaders to recognize “regenerative school feeding,” which will not only solve child hunger but also strengthen local agriculture and sustainability.

He emphasized women’s health, urging world leaders to direct resources to community-based and faith-led health networks that he said “serve where others cannot reach.”

“Place women's health at the core of global finance,” the member of the Vatican Dicastery for Institute of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL) said.

Bishop Mbuyisa called for the institutionalization of faith policy partnerships to ensure faith actors, especially women Religious are included in the G20 engagements and accountability processes.

He further urged global leaders to “support a sister-led policy and innovation hub that will track, scale, and replicate faith-based solutions across our continent.”

Referring to the Catholic Social Teaching, Bishop Mbuyisa reminded global leaders that they should make decisions that not only favor the first-class citizens but also the vulnerable.

“Catholic social teaching reminds us that decisions should be made at the level closest to those whose lives are affected. This is the principle of subsidiarity,” he said.

The Catholic Bishop recognized the efforts of women Religious, Parish networks, and local communities in providing food, care, and hope in places of neglect, noting that such groups “must now also be at the forefront of policy innovation.”

“The moral voice of Africa must be heard in this G20 Summit,” Bishop Mbuyisa said, and called for a transformation of global financial systems, urging that they be anchored in compassion and justice rather than profit.

“We must turn our financial architecture into a covenant of care where fiscal policy becomes a language of love and where debt relief becomes an instrument of justice,” he said.

Quoting Pope St. Paul VI, he said that “true development is a new name for peace.”

And referring to Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ on Care for the Common Home, Bishop Mbuyisa described the relationship between all the creations, saying, “Everything is connected, the cry of the earth, the cry of the poor, the hunger of a child, the health of a mother, and the integrity of our economies.”

He expressed optimism that the 2025 G20 Presidency would promote justice and inclusion.

“Let South Africa's G20 presidency be remembered as the moment when the world chose life over profit, justice over indifference and community over isolation,” Bishop Mbuyisa said.

 “Let it be remembered as a moment when faith turned into policy, and when the nations of the world decided that no child would go hungry, no woman would die needlessly, and no nation would be enslaved by debt. Together, guided by our faith and united in solidarity, we can feed, heal, liberate Africa,” he added.