Caritas Internationalis is set to host a webinar on May 28 to raise awareness of the “current yet silent global crisis” and offer discussions on how to restructure financial systems to serve human rights.
By Kielce Gussie
Senior Vatican officials, civil society leaders, and internationally-recognized economists will all come together virtually at a “townhall” meeting to debate how to end the global debt crisis which continues to keep billions of people in poverty.
Hosted by Caritas Internationalis and the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the event is titled “Pilgrims of Hope: A Jubilee inspiration for action on debt, climate and development.” It will held on May 28 at 14:30-16:00 Rome time.
Turn debt into hope
This webinar is organized within Caritas Internationalis’ worldwide campaign, “Turn Debt into Hope”, which launched on December 23, 2024. In the context of the Jubilee Year of Hope, religious leaders and policy experts will reflect on how the Holy Year “provides a vision for ending the global debt crisis.”
The campaign’s goal is to bring attention to the “current yet silent global debt crisis – a crisis that is ultimately one of development, not merely finance” as more than 3.3 billion people live in countries where governments spend more on repaying their debts than on basic public services like education and healthcare.
Moreover, this virtual townhall coincides with the tenth anniversary of Pope Francis’ Laudato si’ and the late Pontiff’s appeal on the 2025 World Day of Peace for relief to be given to the most heavily indebted countries around the world—“not“ as an act of generosity but as one of justice.”
What’s on the table for discussion?
Panelists include Professor Martin Guzmán of the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University; Sister Alessandra Smerilli, Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development; and Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.
Discussions will focus on the steps to be taken to relieve debt burdens and reform the global financial system in the context of the Jubilee Year.
The panelists will reflect on Pope Francis’ teaching on the need to place financial systems at the service of human rights and the environment – rather than the other way around – as well as an upcoming report from a Vatican-commissioned group of experts on debt convened by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS) and Columbia University’s Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), under the chairmanship of Professor Joseph Stiglitz.
