Benedict XVI is urging world leaders attending the G20 summit in London to maintain
development aid for poor countries
The Holy Father wrote to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown asking that he and other
leaders attending this week's conference not forget the poor as they try to chart
a way out of the crisis. Following, the text of the Holy father's letter to British
Prime Minister:
His Excellency The Right Honourable Mr. Gordon Brown Prime
Minister
Dear Prime Minister,
During your recent visit to the Vatican,
you kindly briefed me on the Summit taking place in London from 2 to 3 April 2009
with the participation of representatives from the world’s twenty largest economies.
As you explained, the aim of this meeting is to coordinate, with urgency, measures
necessary to stabilize financial markets and to enable companies and families to weather
this period of deep recession, in order to restore sustainable growth in the world
economy and to reform and substantially strengthen systems of global governance, in
order to ensure that such a crisis is not repeated in the future.
It is my
intention with this letter to express to you and to the Heads of State and Heads of
Government participating in the Summit the Catholic Church’s appreciation, as well
as my own, for the meeting’s noble objectives based on the conviction, shared by all
the participating Governments and international organizations, that the way out of
the current global crisis can only be reached together, avoiding solutions marked
by any nationalistic selfishness or protectionism.
I am writing this message
having just returned from Africa, where I had the opportunity to see at first hand
the reality of severe poverty and marginalization, which the crisis risks aggravating
dramatically. I was also able to witness the extraordinary human resources with which
that Continent is blessed and which can be offered to the whole world.
The
London Summit, just like the one in Washington in 2008, for practical and pressing
reasons is limited to the convocation of those States who represent 90% of the world’s
gross production and 80% of world trade. In this framework, sub-Saharan Africa is
represented by just one State and some regional organizations. This situation must
prompt a profound reflection among the Summit participants, since those whose voice
has least force in the political scene are precisely the ones who suffer most from
the harmful effects of a crisis for which they do not bear responsibility. Furthermore,
in the long run, it is they who have the most potential to contribute to the progress
of everyone.
It is necessary, therefore, to turn to the multilateral mechanisms
and structures which form part of the United Nations and its associated organizations,
in order to hear the voices of all countries and to ensure that measures and steps
taken at G20 meetings are supported by all.
At the same time, I would like
to note a further reason for the need for reflection at the Summit. Financial crises
are triggered when – partially due to the decline of correct ethical conduct – those
working in the economic sector lose trust in its modes of operating and in its financial
systems. Nevertheless, finance, commerce and production systems are contingent human
creations which, if they become objects of blind faith, bear within themselves the
roots of their own downfall. The only true and solid foundation is faith in the human
person. For this reason all the measures proposed to rein in this crisis must seek,
ultimately, to offer security to families and stability to workers and, through appropriate
regulations and controls, to restore ethics to the financial world.
The current
crisis has raised the spectre of the cancellation or drastic reduction of external
assistance programmes, especially for Africa and for less developed countries elsewhere.
Development aid, including the commercial and financial conditions favourable to less
developed countries and the cancellation of the external debt of the poorest and most
indebted countries, has not been the cause of the crisis and, out of fundamental justice,
must not be its victim.
If a key element of the crisis is a deficit of ethics
in economic structures, the same crisis teaches us that ethics is not “external” to
the economy but “internal” and that the economy cannot function if it does not bear
within it an ethical component.
Accordingly, renewed faith in the human person,
which must shape every step towards the solution of the crisis, will be best put into
practice through a courageous and generous strengthening of international cooperation,
capable of promoting a truly humane and integral development. Positive faith in the
human person, and above all faith in the poorest men and women – of Africa and other
regions of the world affected by extreme poverty – is what is needed if we are truly
to come through the crisis once and for all, without turning our back on any region,
and if we are definitively to prevent any recurrence of a situation similar to that
in which we find ourselves today.
I would also like to add my voice to those
of the adherents of various religions and cultures who share the conviction that the
elimination of extreme poverty by 2015, to which Leaders at the UN Millennium Summit
committed themselves, remains one of the most important tasks of our time.
Right
Honourable Prime Minister, I invoke Almighty God’s abundant blessings upon the London
Summit and upon all the multilateral meetings currently searching for ways to resolve
the financial crisis and I take this opportunity once again to offer you warm greetings
and to express my sentiments of esteem.
From the Vatican, 30 March 2009
response
of British Prime Minister to the Holy Father:
Your Holiness Thank
you for your letter of 30 March about the London G20 Summit. It was a pleasure to
meet you recently. I was inspired by our discussion to redouble my efforts to ensure
the G20 Summit does not forget the poor or climate change. Millions of families
around the world are struggling as the recession takes its toll. We must provide real
help to get people through these tough times and take action to lay the foundations
for recovery. That is why we must get an ambitious outcome from the London Summit
on 2 April. As you say, the world's poorest are most at risk from this crisis,
even though they have not been responsible for creating it. Protecting the poorest
is one of my top priorities and we stand ready to support the most vulnerable in society.
It is vital that rich countries keep their promises on aid, even in these tough times. The
UK has also already announced a contribution to the World Bank's Rapid Social Response
Fund that will protect some of the poorest from the impact of the crisis. We are calling
on others to make a contribution, to provide real help for people in difficulty. We
must not turn away from the poor at a time when they most need our help. I hope the
G20 will also help create momentum for the vital Copenhagen Climate talks and back
a low carbon recovery. I am committed to doing all I can to help ensure our transition
to a greener future. As well as helping the poorest and supporting a low carbon
recovery, the G20 must also take bold action to help kickstart global trade and give
the IMF the funds it needs to support big emerging economies, increasingly starved
of global finance. Millions of jobs will depend on this. Finally we must agree
tough measures to better regulate banks and hedge funds and ensure the shadow banking
system is regulated. As you say, the poorest, particularly Africa, need a greater
voice in the G20. This is why we have extended the participation at the London Summit
beyond the traditional members of the G20 to include African and Asian regional representation,
in the form of the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) and the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). We will of course also have the heads
of the IMF and World Bank, who work to support the economies of the emerging and developing
world, and I am delighted that the UN Secretary General will be joining us. Additionally,
in advance of the London Summit, I hosted detailed discussions in London with African
leaders to hear views and have taken these into account. This is a decisive moment
for the world economy. We have a choice to make. We can either let the recession run
its course, or we can resolve as a world community to unite, to stand with millions
of people struggling in these tough times, to fight back against this global recession
that is hurting so many people in every continent. I hope that the world's leaders
can come together to rise to this challenge.