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The International Debt Crisis
The Tradition of the Jubilee Year
Pope John Paul II has asked the Catholic community to celebrate a
"jubilee year" during 2000. The following quote from Isaiah* can
help us understand what the tradition of the jubilee year meant in ancient times.
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because
the Lord has anointed me;
He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the
brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to
prisoners, To announce a year of favor from the Lord...
The Tradition of the Jubilee Year
Pope John Paul II has asked the Catholic community to celebrate a
"jubilee year" during 2000. The following quote from Deuteronomy*
can help us understand what the tradition of the jubilee year meant
in ancient times.
At the end of every seven-year period you shall
have a relaxation of debts, which shall be observed as follows.
Every creditor shall relax his claim on what he has loaned his
neighbor; he must not press his neighbor, his kinsman, because a
relaxation in honor of the Lord has been proclaimed.
The Tradition of the Jubilee Year
Pope John Paul II has asked the Catholic community to celebrate a
"jubilee year" during 2000. The following quote from Leviticus* can
help us understand what the tradition of the jubilee year meant in
ancient times.
But during the seventh year the land shall
have a complete rest, a sabbath for the Lord, when you may neither
sow your field nor prune your vineyard. The after growth of your
harvest you shall not reap, nor shall you pick the grapes of your
untrimmed vines in this year of sabbath rest for the land. While the
land has its sabbath, all its produce will be food equally for you
yourself and for your male and female slaves, for your hired help
and the tenants who live with you, and likewise for your livestock
and for the wild animals on your land.
The Tradition of the Jubilee Year
Pope John Paul II has asked the Catholic community to celebrate a
"jubilee year" during 2000. When Jesus announced his ministry, he
used a quote from Isaiah that refers to the tradition of jubilee.*
The spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore
he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the
poor, to proclaim liberty to captives. Recovery of sight to the
blind and release to prisoners. To announce a year of favor from the
Lord...
The Tradition of the Jubilee Year
Pope John Paul II has asked the Catholic community to celebrate a
"jubilee year" during 2000. The following quote from Leviticus* can
help us understand what the tradition of the jubilee year meant in
ancient times.
This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by pro-
claiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants... When one of
your countrymen is reduced to poverty and has to sell some of his
property, his closest relative, who has the right to redeem it, may
go and buy back what his kinsman has sold...But if he does not
acquire sufficient means to buy back his land, what he has sold
shall remain in the possession of the purchaser until the jubilee,
when it must be released and returned to its original owner...When,
then, your countryman becomes so impoverished beside you that he
sells you his services, do not make him work as a slave. Rather let
him be like a hired servant or like your tenant, working with you
until the jubilee year, when he, together with his children, shall
be released from your service and return to his kindred and to the
property of his ancestors.
The Tradition of the Jubilee Year
Pope John Paul II has asked the Catholic community to celebrate a
"jubilee year" during 2000. The following quote can help us
understand what the tradition of the jubilee year means.
The jubilee year was meant to restore equality among all the children
of Israel, offering new possibilities to families which had lost their
property and even their personal freedom.
On the other hand, the jubilee year was a reminder to the
rich that a time would come when their Israelite slaves would once
again become their equals and would be able to reclaim their rights.
At the times prescribed by law, a jubilee year had to be proclaimed
to assist those in need.
The Tradition of the Jubilee Year
Pope John Paul II has asked the Catholic community to celebrate a
"jubilee year" during 2000. The following quote can help us
understand what the tradition of the jubilee year means.
In his providence God had given the earth to
humanity, that meant that he had given it to everyone. Therefore the
riches of creation were to be considered as a common good of the
whole of humanity. Those who possessed these goods as personal
property were really only stewards, ministers charged with working
in the name of God, who remains the sole owner in the full sense,
since it is God's will that created goods should serve everyone in a
just way. The jubilee year was meant to restore this social justice.
The Tradition of the Jubilee Year
Pope John Paul II has asked the Catholic community to celebrate a
"jubilee year" during 2000. The following quote can help us
understand what the tradition of the jubilee year means.
All jubilees refer to the messianic mission
of Christ, who came as the one "anointed" by the Holy Spirit, the
one "sent by the Father." It is he who proclaims the good news to
the poor. It is he who brings liberty to those deprived of it, who
frees the oppressed and gives back sight to the blind (cf. Mt.
11:4-5; Lk. 7:22). In this way he ushers in "a year of the Lord's
favor," which he proclaims not only with his words but above all by
his actions. The jubilee, "a year of the Lord's favor,"
characterizes all the activity of Jesus...
The Tradition of the Jubilee Year
Pope John Paul II has asked the Catholic community to celebrate a
"jubilee year" during 2000. The following quote can help us
understand what the tradition of the jubilee year means.
For the church, the jubilee is precisely this
"year of the Lord's favor," a year of the remission of sins and of
the punishments due to them, a year of reconciliation between
disputing parties, a year of manifold conversions and of sacramental
and extra sacramental penance.
The Tradition of the Jubilee Year
Pope John Paul II has asked the Catholic community to celebrate a
"jubilee year" during 2000. The following quote can help us
understand what the tradition of the jubilee year means.
From this point of view, if we recall that Jesus cam to "preach the good
news to the poor" (Mt. 11:5; Lk. 7:22), how we can fail to lay
greater emphasis on the church's preferential option for the poor
and the outcast? Indeed, it has to be said that a commitment to justice
and peace in a world like ours, marked by so many conflicts and intolerable
social and economic inequalities, is a necessary condition for the preparation
and celebration of the jubilee.
The International Debt Crisis
Pope John Paul II has identified the issue of international debt as
a key priority for the church and an important element of our
efforts to apply the tradition of jubilee to our day and time.
Thus, in the spirit of the Book of Leviticus (25:8-
12), Christians will have to raise their voice on behalf of all the
poor of the world, proposing the jubilee as an appropriate time to
give thought, among other things, to reducing substantially, if not
canceling outright, the international debt which seriously threatens
the future of many nations.
* From The New American Bible
The International Debt Crisis
Pope John Paul II has identified the issue of international debt as
a key priority for the church and an important element of our
efforts to apply the tradition of jubilee to our day and time.
While the details of the international debt
crisis are quite complex, in essence it comes down to a fairly
straightforward problem. Often through irresponsible practices on
the parts of both creditors and debtor nations, the governments of
some of the world's poorest countries have taken (and been given)
loans that they do not have the capacity to repay. As a result, they
have reduced spending on desperately needed health and education
programs in an effort to meet their obligations to international
lenders. But even after cutting back on social programs, many
countries cannot make full repayment, and so over time debt builds
up and makes it increasingly difficult to finance investments in the
health, education, and development programs that could pull their
people out of poverty.
The International Debt Crisis
Pope John Paul II has identified the issue of international debt as
a key priority for the church and an important element of our
efforts to apply the tradition of jubilee to our day and time.
In Ethiopia, debt payments are four times more than public spending
on health, while over 100,000 children die every year from easily
preventable and treatable diarrhea.
The International Debt Crisis
Pope John Paul II has identified the issue of international debt as
a key priority for the church and an important element of our
efforts to apply the tradition of jubilee to our day and time.
According to the Human Development Report
for 1997, published by the UN Development Program (UNDP),
sub-Saharan African governments transfer to northern creditors four
times what they spend on the health of their people.
The International Debt Crisis
Pope John Paul II has identified the issue of international debt as
a key priority for the church and an important element of our
efforts to apply the tradition of jubilee to our day and time.
The problem of the foreign debt is not only
or even primarily economic; rather, it is a human problem for it
leads to an ever-greater impoverishment and blocks the development
and slows the advancement of those who are poorest. We ask ourselves
whether the debt is valid, when paying it seriously jeopardizes the
survival of our peoples, when the population was not consulted
before contracting the debt, and when it has not always been used
for lawful purposes.
The International Debt Crisis
Pope John Paul II has identified the issue of international debt as
a key priority for the church and an important element of our
efforts to apply the tradition of jubilee to our day and time.
In Uganda, the government spends $3.00 per
person annually on health and education and $17.00 per person
annually on debt repayments. Yet one of every five Ugandan children
dies from preventable disease before reaching the age five.
The International Debt Crisis
Pope John Paul II has identified the issue of international debt as
a key priority for the church and an important element of our
efforts to apply the tradition of jubilee to our day and time.
The globalized economy must be analyzed
in the light of the principles of social justice, respecting the
preferential option for the poor who must be allowed to take their
place in such an economy, and the requirements of the international
common good. For "the Church's social doctrine is a moral vision
which aims to encourage governments, institutions and private
organizations to shape a future consonant with the dignity of every
person. Within this perspective it is possible to examine questions
of external debt, internal political corruption and discrimination
both within and between nations."
For more information, contact the United States Catholic Conference
at (202) 541-3199; (website: www.usccb.org/sdwp) or Catholic
Relief Services at (410) 625-2220; (website: www.catholicrelief.org).