(September 20, 2010) Meanwhile Caritas International has urged the UN’s MDG summit
to put justice for the poor at the heart of its development plans. Abbe Ambroise
Tine, the secretary general of Caritas Senegal is participating in the Sept. 20-22
talks as the representative of Caritas Internationalis, the confederation of 165 national
Catholic charities worldwide. He will be speaking on Wednesday about how justice
and not charity is key if the MDGs are to be met. said that a poor family in Senegal
will almost certainly not have heard of the Millennium Development Goals. But they
are working every day as hard as anyone to achieve them. They just know the MDGs by
a different name - survival. What is needed, Abbe Tine said, is political will from
world leaders to see through the promises their governments are already committed
to. That political will must take the form of further debt cancellation, fair international
trade rules and more aid, better spent. According to Abbe Tine it is not simply a
question of more money. We need political leaders to regard all people as human beings
whose dignity, freedom and right to better living conditions are deemed sacred and
inviolable. Caritas is running an international campaign in support of the Millennium
Development Goals.