2008-07-07 13:04:56

Pope urges the G-8 Summit to help the World Poor


(July 7, 2008) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged the Group of Eight summit in Japan to take measures to fight poverty and hunger at a time of soaring food and oil prices. The Pope, in his weekly Angelus blessing at the papal summer residence in the hill town of Castel Gandolfo near Rome asked the leaders of the world's richest nations to put the needy at the top of their agenda and make good on previous pledges to help them. "Their vulnerability has increased today because of financial speculation and turbulence, with a perverse effect on food and energy prices," the pope said. "I call for generosity and farsightedness to help take decisions that would relaunch an equitable development process, while safeguarding human dignity,” he said. He noted that Catholic bishops in G-8 countries were among those appealing to the summit leaders. «I, too, unite myself to this pressing appeal for solidarity,» Pope Benedict said. «I appeal to the participants of the meeting at Hokkaido-Toyako, so that they put the needs of the weakest and poorest populations at the centre of their deliberations,» the pontiff said. The G8 annual summit opens on Monday in Toyako on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, gathering the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia.







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