Faith-based organisations are commending a new pastoral letter from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops pressing the Global North to wipe out low-income countries’ crippling debt and consider the ecological burden it has placed on the Global South. Source: NCR Online.
“Forgive us our Debts: Pastoral Letter on Debt Forgiveness in the Jubilee Year,” written by the CCCB’s Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace and released on July 28, continues the tradition of urging the relaxing of crippling monetary obligations during a year of special grace in the universal Catholic Church.
Dean Dettloff, the research and advocacy officer for Development and Peace – Caritas Canada, said the bishops’ missive meets the moment.
“Their new letter shows that today’s debt crisis requires even more ambition, providing not only urgent debt forgiveness, but also changing the financial structures that have created these problems,” Mr Dettloff said in an email to The Catholic Register, Canada’s national Catholic newspaper.
“The spiritual and moral clarity of the letter helps us to deepen our engagement with the Jubilee Year, reviving the pulse of the biblical jubilee and becoming pilgrims of hope.”
The CCCB letter critiques creditors for certain actions they employ to exacerbate these crises.
“To receive a loan, creditors sometimes require debtor countries to enact austerity conditions and privatise key sectors, making countries more dependent on foreign exports and denying the right of countries to develop on their own terms,” the letter states. “Creditors have also at times given loans to corrupt governments, where political leaders may use the money to enrich themselves or repress their citizens rather than to fund development.”
In this Jubilee Year, the CCCB deems it appropriate for creditors to cancel debts “that oppress and hold back integral human development.”
Pronouncing that Canada is “greatly blessed with abundant natural resources, a stable political system, resilient infrastructure and a strong economy,” the bishops say “to whom much has been given, much will be required of us.”
The pastoral letter advocates that because of Canada’s “privileged situation” created in part from “access to the raw materials of the Global South,” Canadians have an impetus to aid nations deprived of the same advantages.
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Canadian bishops’ pastoral letter calls for ecological justice, wiping out debt (NCR Online)
