JUBILEE LIGHTENS DEBT
Pope Appeals to Local Churches and Civil Society

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 9, 2001 (ZENIT.org).- Despite the indifference
that reigns in our society, John Paul II's Jubilee appeal for debt
relief for developing nations has resulted in an impressive show of
solidarity.

The Pontiff himself acknowledged this in his recent Apostolic Letter,
"Novo Millennio Ineunte," where he dedicated a whole paragraph to the
issue.

The governments of many creditor nations "have voted for a
substantial reduction," noted the Pope. Now the governments must
comply "in a brief period of time with these decisions," and resolve
especially the problem of multilateral debt, that is, debt incurred
with international financial organizations.

Among the governments that have voted a reduction, the Italian,
British, Norwegian, and Swiss stand out. The United States, while
voting a reduction last November, forgave 12 times less debt than the
Italian government did, and made the measure dependent on acceptance
of birth control policies.

=46ar more extensive and capillary in action has been the movement of
among the general public and initiatives begun by local Churches and
civil society worldwide. For example, in a campaign to buy off
portions of the debt of two of the poorest countries (Zambia and
Guinea Bissau), and use it for development projects, the Italian
Episcopal Conference was successful in almost doubling the reduction
agreed to by the Italian Parliament, and the figure is still not
final.

At the level of public opinion, it is important to recall the Jubilee
2000 sensitization campaign, promoted by rock stars from all over the
world, among them, Bono and U2, who were received by the Pope.

On the political level, the most striking global initiative was the
motion approved on November 4 by the parliamentarians who were in
Rome to celebrate their Jubilee. They requested the immediate
implementation of the agreements arrived at during the G-8 summit in
Cologne, Germany, in 1999.

Herein lies, in fact, the most intricate knot. If unravelled, it
could open the way to a solution of the problem, as John Paul II
wrote. The G-8 countries have provided for the cancellation of the
debt of the 33 poorest countries of the world, in the amount of $90
million. However, the countries in question must present a document
articulating the objectives of a new development involving the civil
society. Ten countries have already complied, implying a total of $15
million; an additional ten are in the process of doing so, for a
total of $20 million. At this stage, it is the creditors who must
speed up their pace.

At present, the Jubilee's greatest success in this area was to
convince the industrialized world's financial institutions to relate
financial aid to development programs that include the active
participation of civil society, a task that is intensely promoted by
the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, presided over by
Vietnamese Archbishop François Xavier Nguy=EAn Van Thu=E2n.
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