VATICAN CITY, 4 JUL 2009 (VIS) - The Pope sent a letter to Silvio Berlusconi, Italian prime minister, for the forthcoming meeting of the heads of State and Government of the industrialised countries (G8), due to take place in the Italian city of L'Aquila from 8 to 10 July.
John Paul II, writes Benedict XVI, "was convinced that freeing the poorest countries from the burden of debt and, more generally, eradicating the causes of extreme poverty in the world, depended on the most economically-advanced governments and States fully assuming the responsibility they bear towards all humanity".
Nonetheless, the Pope goes on, despite the fact that one of the millennium goals was to eradicate extreme poverty in the world by 2015, "the financial and economic crisis that has struck the entire planet since the start of 2008 has altered the panorama, so that there is now a real risk not only that the hope of emerging from extreme poverty may be extinguished, but that people who until now benefited from some minimal material wellbeing risk falling into indigence".
"With the same force as that with which John Paul II called for relief from foreign debt, I too would like to make an appeal to the G8 member States, to the other States represented and to governments of the whole world, that their aid for development, especially the part directed at 'evaluating' the 'human resource', may be maintained and strengthened, and not just despite the crisis but precisely because this is one of the principle ways to solve it".
"The question of access to education is intimately linked to the effectiveness of international co-operation", writes the Holy Father. "Education is an indispensable condition for the working of democracy, for the fight against corruption, for the exercise of political, economic and social rights, and for the recovery of all States, both poor and rich". In this context he also mentions the efforts being made in the field of education by the Catholic Church and by other religions in the "poorest and most remote corners of the globe".
The Holy Father also makes it clear that "the level of technical efficiency of the provisions necessary to emerge from the crisis directly depends on the level of their ethical force". What is important, he goes on, is "the creation of jobs for everyone, thus enabling workers to meet the needs of their families in a dignified way, and to absolve the primary responsibility they have in educating their children and in playing an active role in the communities to which they belong".
He encourages the G8 nations "to reform international financial structures in order to ensure effective co-ordination of national policies, avoiding ... speculation and guaranteeing the broad international availability of public and private credit at the service of production and of work, especially in the most disadvantaged countries and regions.
"The ethical legitimisation of the political commitments of the G8 will naturally require that they be weighed against the ideas and needs of the entire international community", the Pope adds, highlighting the importance of "reinforcing multilateralism, not only in economic questions but over the entire spectrum of topics concerning peace, world security, disarmament, health, and protection of the environment and of natural resources for present and future generations".
The Pontiff encourages G8 leaders "to listen to the voice of Africa and of less economically-developed countries". He also calls upon them "to seek effective ways to link the decisions made by various State groupings, including the G8, to the United Nations Assembly, where each nation, whatever its political or economic importance, can legitimately express itself in a position of equality with others".
Finally, noting how the summit meeting is to be held in a city recently affected by an earthquake, the Pope indicates that the aid L'Aquila has received "could be seen as an invitation to the members of the G8 and to governments and peoples of the world to unite to face current challenges, which require humankind to make decisive choices concerning the very destiny of man, intimately connected with that of creation".
BXVI-LETTER/G8 MEETING/BERLUSCONI VIS 20090706 (690)
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