Last year, our Catholic community supported a global church campaign to tackle the debt crisis, but we need continued support, to change the devastating impacts of debt on low-income countries. During the Jubilee Year, 35,000 people signed CAFOD’s petition including 10 parishes in Hallam, let us build on this hope. Please see cafod.org.uk/cancelthedebt
All countries borrow money. But low-income countries need to borrow more and are pushed into deepening debt crisis, paying high interest rates to wealthy lenders. Often, they have paid their original debt back, but spiralling interest means they cannot break the cycle. Money that should be spent on food, healthcare, and education is flowing out of countries that can least afford it. Governments across the global south must choose between serving their people or paying creditors.
Wesley Chibamba, Caritas Africa’s Policy and Advocacy Officer, explained people are dying because they can’t access healthcare. Children cannot go to school. People are going hungry because the governments have debt obligations. Governments don’t have the capacity to respond to humanitarian crisis, like floods or drought – they don’t have the funds.
Archbishop Gabriele GiordanoCaccia, says “The current debt crisis represents a profound failure of our global economic system…If a mother cannot access prenatal care because the government has cut healthcare spending to service debt… if communities cannot rebuild after disasters because the resources are diverted to foreign creditors, we must acknowledge that there has not just been a serious economic failure but a moral one.”
Next year, our government is hosting the G20 in 2027 – a crucial gathering of the world’s 20 most powerful economies. These leaders have power to fix the global debt system; we need to call for debt justice now. Please sign CAFOD’s new petition this spring and build on the momentum of 2025.
As Wesley Chibamba says, “It is not an issue of compassion, it is an issue of justice. If you care for humanity and development, we urge you to support the debt justice campaign. Angela Powell
