Pope Benedict Exchanges Letters with Gordon Brown Ahead of G8
(08 July 08 - RV) Ahead of travelling to Saparro Japan for the Group of Eight meeting,
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed his personal concern regarding the international
community’s shortfall on its commitment to the millennium development goals, in a
letter to Pope Benedict XVI.
In the letter Prime Minister Brown highlighted
Pope Benedict’s speech to the UN General Assembly in April this year, during which
the Pope spoke of the challenges facing our world and the responsibility on those
in positions of leadership to act together to promote solidarity in the most fragile
regions of the world.
Responding to the British premier on behalf of Pope Benedict,
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone writes that “The Holy Father
prays that the important international meetings planned for the second half of the
present year will be able to provide an effective response to the economic crises
afflicting several regions of the planet, and put into effect a concerted international
plan of action aimed at freeing the world from extreme poverty, from the scourge of
hunger and from the chronic lack of general medical care”.
Jon Liden is the
spokesperson for the Global Fund to fight aids, malaria and tuberculosis.
He
says that while G8 nations remain financially committed to fighting disease, other
crises are claiming the attention of world leader: