Another plea to release grip of debt

Leaders in the Catholic Church have once again appealed to the world's wealthier nations to relax the grip of debt that is choking so many Third World countries.

Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Newark, N.J., is chairman of the International Policy Committee of the U.S. Catholic Conference (USCC); Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., is chairman of Catholic Relief Services, the overseas relief agency of American Catholics. As reported by Catholic News Service, they recently urged expedited debt relief for the world's poorest nations -- along with a focus within those countries on the needs of their poorest people.

In doing so, the bishops are reiterating what has been said by many other religious leaders, including Pope John Paul II, who has called on nations and financial institutions to consider reducing or forgiving the debt of the poorest countries as a way of marking the new millennium.

The two bishops made their appeal in a response to a World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) request to comment on the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, an attempt to determine how much debt poor countries can sustain and to set conditions for reduction or forgiveness. The bishops urged a shorter evaluation period than six years (the current norm) before full debt relief is offered, saying that "in the most impoverished countries, a six-year delay means that a generation of children will not have access" to basic health and education needs "in the most critical years of their lives."

They might have had in mind someone like Zenithou, a three-year-old girl in Niger whose face is being eaten away by a bacterial disease. "When she's in pain," says her father, "she takes my hand and puts it against her face and says to me, `Daddy, it hurts.' I just stroke her and comfort her, but my heart is thumping and thumping."

Niger spends three times more money paying off its debt than it spends on health and education. Antibiotics may have saved Zenithou if her illness had been caught early, but Niger -- the poorest country in the world and freighted with debt -- cannot afford such "luxuries."

There are signs that the calls from religious leaders are beginning to have some impact. The Clinton administration has released new proposals to expand debt relief. Congressman Jim Leach (R-Iowa), chairman of the House Banking and Financial Services Committee, has introduced a bill that would make more countries eligible for debt relief, and add protections to assure that the governments receiving relief use those funds for their intended purposes.

Another sign that religious leaders are being heard is the assessment of a USCC official who said: "I hear the Pope's words used in the most unlikely places. I've heard the president of the World Bank and the head of the IMF talk about his words." She also speculated that the Pope may have gotten the ear of President Clinton when the two met in St. Louis in January. She said that sources in the Administration indicated that the President "came back [from that meeting] very excited about doing something more substantial" on the debt question.

As religious, economic and political leaders move forward on this key issue, it's time for ordinary people to get involved, too. One way to do that is through a new national campaign to educate Catholics on the debt crisis. The Catholic Campaign on Debt, sponsored by the American bishops, looks at the debt crisis from the perspective of Scripture and the Church's teaching on social justice.

The materials include lesson plans and student handouts for middle and high schools; suggestions for student research projects; quotes and facts that can be posted in Sunday bulletins; study and action suggestions for parish committees; and information on other resources.

Informed and motivated to act, Catholics can get behind those politicians who are on the move in order to support them -- as well as get behind those who are recalcitrant in order to give them a push in the right direction.

We urge readers to educate themselves about world debt and then to contact their congressional representatives, urging that the U.S. take major steps toward lifting the economic burden that crushes so many people who live in severe poverty. If this is to be done by 2000, now is the time to act.

(The Catholic Campaign on Debt Kit is available for $5 from Mina Behari, USCC/SDWP, 3211 Fourth St. NE, Washington, DC 20017. Call 202-541-3199; fax 202-541-3339. In April, the materials will be available for free on the internet at www.nccbuscc.org/sdwp.)

(03-25-99)

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