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Heiligendamm (Agenzia Fides) -Catholic Bishops from around the rich world have issued a public plea for the G8 group of industrialised nations to take "bold action on global poverty". The leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, was among seven Presidents of Catholic Bishops' Conferences to sign an open letter to G8 leaders, ahead of their summit 6-8 June at Heiligendamm in Germany.
The other six presidents of Catholic Bishops Conferences represented Germany, Cardinal Karl Lehmann Bishop of Mainz; Canada, Archbishop André Gaumond of Sherbrooke; France, Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard Archbishop of Bordeaux; Japan, Bishop Augustinus Jun'ichi Nomura of Nagoya; Bishop Joseph Werth Bishop Novosibirsk, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Russian Federation and Bishop William S. Skylstad of the diocese of Sposane president of the United States Catholic Bishops' Conference.
The letter reminded the G8 leaders of the agreement they reached at Gleneagles in 2005 to spend an additional 50 billion dollars (£25 billion) on aid by 2010, and voiced "concern" that aid funding in fact remained stagnant last year. The bishops said they were united with Pope Benedict XVI in calling for wealthy nations to live up to their "moral obligations" towards the world's poorest people. "The G8 summit will explore many issues of critical importance to human life and dignity," they wrote. And they said: "We urge you to act out of the moral obligation that we all share for the well-being of every human person, but also because replacing despair with hope in Africa will lead to a more secure world for all nations.”.
The letter also called on the G8 leaders to intensify efforts to ensure implementation of the United Nations mandate to strengthen peacekeeping forces in the war-torn Sudanese province of Darfur. The letter will increase pressure on the leaders of the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia to make progress on aid and climate change at the summit in the German coastal resort of Heiligendamm.
The bishops welcomed the recent agreement by G8 development ministers to come "as close as possible" to universal access to preventative measures and treatment for HIV/Aids. They called for action to stop global warming, citing the "moral responsibility of good stewardship" of the planet. But they stressed that the cost of measures to reverse climate change should fall, not on the shoulders of the poor, but on "richer persons and nations who have benefited most from the harmful emissions that fuelled development". (PA) (Agenzia Fides 5/6/2007 righe 30 parole 304 )
