(September 4, 2008) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited the president
of Caritatis Internationalis to attend a high-level meeting on how to better overcome
the global scourge of poverty. Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga will attend the
Sept. 25 High-level Event on the Millennium Development Goals as a representative
of civil society. The development goals aim to significantly reduce global poverty,
but progress on them is increasingly off schedule for the target year of 2015. Caritas
reported that at the halfway point in 2008, with current projections, targets will
be missed in some countries by over 100 years. "I welcome the U.N.'s initiative to
put the Millennium Development Goals back on track," Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga
said. "The MDGs are a useful catalyst in ending the scandal of poverty but currently
risk becoming victims of inaction. Failure to meet these targets in a world of such
wealth is unthinkable, yet will happen unless we take the right steps now." According
to the cardinal, action from the United Nations cannot come fast enough. "Eleven million
children die each year in poverty from preventable causes," he said. "That's 77 million
children who will die over the next seven years from now to 2015 because of our failure
to act today." Part of the problem, according to Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, is
lack of cooperation with faith-based organizations. "A third of all children under
five in developing countries are severely stunted because of hunger, and world leaders
are committed to doing something about it. The Church runs over 60,000 schools for
5.8 million infants and 90,000 primary schools for 28 million pupils.