In day 2 of this heat wave, I have been listening to fears that our electricity grid needs investment to help us to cope with the increasing incidence of heat waves in the UK. The extra electricity load for significant numbers air conditioning increases the risk of blackouts ( and electric car charging) as happened in France recently.
The CAFOD / Live Simply group in our parish promoted the new CAFOD petition lobbying the Prime Minister to use our hosting of the G20 next year to cancel some third world debt to enable poor countries to support their populations better and to pass a new UK law supporting Debt Justice.
We are privileged in that we have been a major world economy for hundreds of years and have built up more wealth than many of the nations who are suffering greater environmental changes due to climate change. Yet our Government is borrowing more money to ‘keep us in the manner we expect’. Smaller country economies must raise the capital to help their people from displacement and natural disasters. In addition to the humanitarian aid from organisations such as CAFOD, Medicines Sans Frontiers and DEC, plus many others. But with their credit rating are worse than ours so their costs of debt are higher than ours.
It has recently been reported that a certain President has increased his personal wealth in the last 12 months by $1 Billion. Looking at the alleged multi-million payments made to various politicians do we really believe that they are seeking to do anything other than protect their current source of wealth and wealth?
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer across the world. It is not right or just.
So, please visit CAFOD, sign the petition and maybe write to your MP to ask for their support in achieving debt justice across the world. And if you can donate to their Venezuela appeal.
Call for debt justice with CAFOD, in solidarity with millions of our sisters and brothers around the world
Last year, our Catholic community supported a global church campaign to tackle the debt crisis, but we need continued support, to change the devastating impacts of debt on low-income countries. During the Jubilee Year, 35,000 people signed CAFOD’s petition including 18 parishes across the diocese of Leeds, including a group of parishioners who joined others in London to speak to their MP’s face to face about this issue, let us now build on this hope. Please see cafod.org.uk/cancelthedebt
All countries borrow money. But low-income countries need to borrow more and are pushed into deepening debt crisis, paying high interest rates to wealthy lenders. Often, they have paid their original debt back, but spiralling interest means they cannot break the cycle. Money that should be spent on food, healthcare, and education is flowing out of countries that can least afford it. Governments across the global south must choose between serving their people or paying creditors.
Wesley Chibamba, Caritas Africa’s Policy and Advocacy Officer, explained people are dying because they can’t access healthcare. Children cannot go to school. People are going hungry because the governments have debt obligations. Governments don’t have the capacity to respond to humanitarian crisis, like floods or drought – they don’t have the funds.
Archbishop Gabriele GiordanoCaccia, says
“The current debt crisis represents a profound failure of our global economic system…If a mother cannot access prenatal care because the government has cut healthcare spending to service debt… if communities cannot rebuild after disasters because the resources are diverted to foreign creditors, we must acknowledge that there has not just been a serious economic failure but a moral one.”
Next year, our government is hosting the G20 in 2027 - a crucial gathering of the world’s 20 most powerful economies. These leaders have power to fix the global debt system; we need to call for debt justice now.
As we mourn Pope Francis and pray for the new Holy Father, and the Cardinals, who will be gathering to elect a new Pope, we continue to celebrate the Jubilee Year Pilgrims of Hope. We recall that, in his letter for the Jubilee Spes non confundit, Pope Francis invited us all to be
“tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind.”
His model was the biblical Jubilee of the book of Leviticus. Taking place every fifty years, the Jubilee marked a great societal reset - land returned to its original owners, debts were cancelled, relationships restored, and creation renewed (see Leviticus 25).
We celebrate this Jubilee Year in a world where injustice, conflict and abuse of creation are sadly still prevalent. Just as the biblical Jubilee sought to transform economic and community life to reflect the values of God’s Kingdom, so we too are called to advocate for change today.
Central to this is the call for debt justice. In this Jubilee Year of Hope, Pope Francis called for richer countries to cancel the debts of poorer nations who are struggling with immense debt burdens, saying:
“More than a question of generosity, this is a matter of justice.”
CAFOD is part of a worldwide Caritas campaign this year calling for action on the global debt crisis. There is a petition that is being signed in 160 countries, calling on world leaders to take urgent steps in this Jubilee Year. You can sign the petition at cafod.org.uk/debtpetition and also invite others in your parish to sign by ordering paper copies at cafod.org.uk/cancelthedebt
As part of CAFOD’s parish materials there is a letter from Father Charlie Chilufya, a priest based in Kenya, to parishioners in England and Wales. In the letter Father Charlie explains the impact that the debt crisis is having on the Kenyan people, since Kenya is spending five times on repaying foreign debts as it spends on hospitals and schools.
“Families are foregoing medical care and children are losing access to quality education.”
Pope Francis spoke about the debt crisis and the need for action in the Jubilee Year many times in the last year of his life. Join parishes, schools and the whole Catholic community to respond to his call, at cafod.org.uk/cancelthedebt.
Finally, during May we will celebrate Volunteers week, and we give so much thanks to all volunteers in the Church. You all make such a difference, and we couldn’t do what we do with you.
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