An internally displaced girl, who fled a military
offensive in Pakistan’s Swat Valley region, looks through a tear
in the food distribution tent while awaiting for her ration at a U.N.
camp about 87 miles northwest of Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital,
June 14.
CNS photo/Ali Imam, Reuters
By Catholic News Service
UNITED NATIONS (CNS) — The international community
must not forget the world’s poor as it strives to solve the global
economic crisis, warned Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s
nuncio and permanent observer to the United Nations.
Archbishop Migliore addressed the U.N. Conference on the World Financial
and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on World Development June 26 at the
New York headquarters of the United Nations.
The three-day summit convened June 24 with the aim of identifying emergency
and long-term responses to the economic crisis and discussing a transformation
of international financial structure.
Archbishop Migliore urged the conference to take into account the needs
of the poor in all nations. “We must not forget that it is poor
people both in developed and in developing countries who suffer most and
are least able to defend themselves against the impact of this crisis,”
the archbishop said.
In his address he cited World Bank statistics estimating that an additional
55 million to 90 million people will become trapped in extreme poverty
in 2009 as the number of those suffering from chronic hunger is expected
to surpass 1 billion.
Consequently, the Vatican believes there is “a compelling moral
obligation to address these worsening social and economic disparities
which undermine the basic dignity of so many of the world’s inhabitants,”
he stated.
The archbishop encouraged the conference to adopt realistic short-term
measures to provide stability to the world’s poorest populations.
“Short-term actions must focus on means that are capable of bringing
tangible relief within a reasonable time period to individuals most in
need,” he said.
Archbishop Migliore said that members of the United Nations also must
adopt long-term measures that support sustainability in impoverished regions.
Specifically, the archbishop said the Vatican supports the directing of
financial assistance to developing countries as well as measures that
strengthen food security, protect social expenditures and direct a greater
proportion of public expenditure toward improving the lives of people.
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