(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.