WIDESPREAD EXTREME POVERTY IS A SCANDAL

VATICAN CITY, JAN 29, 2000 (VIS) - In New York on January 26, Bishop Diarmuid Martin, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, spoke at a panel discussion of ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council of the United Nations) on the Contribution of the U.N. System to Combating Poverty.

Bishop Martin highlighted that "we cannot repeat often enough that the persistence of such widespread extreme poverty is a scandal."

In talking of the fight against poverty, the bishop affirmed that "every sector of modern society is called to assume its appropriate responsibility: humanitarian organizations and religious groups but also business and the private sector; governments and international organizations, but also civil society ... and those living in poverty themselves, whose voice can so easily be ignored."
Bishop Martin went on to refer to the phenomenon of corruption, saying: "International instruments to identify and punish corruption must be put in place."

In closing, he stated that armed conflict and military expenditure represented an area in which progress could still be made: "The statistics are bluntly clear. Conflict produces poverty, peace opens the path to prosperity. There can be no agenda for development which does not address an agenda for peace. The question of the proliferation of small arms must be placed more clearly on the international development agenda and not limited just to a minor disarmament slot."

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