Holy See diplomat: Poverty, not financial sector, at heart of economic crisis
October 29, 2009
Archbishop Celestino Migliore, apostolic nuncio and permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, called upon wealthier nations to fulfill their development commitments to the world’s poorest nations because “the real [economic] crisis … is not the disruption of the international economic structures based largely on weak or even fictitious bases, but the sharp worsening of poverty in a world already haunted by intolerable misery.”
“Those who bear the brunt of the crisis are only marginally mentioned in public discourse despite the fact that their numbers have skyrocketed and opportunities to reintegrate in the eventual economic growth are rather scarce or even non-existent,” he continued. “Several monitoring and advisory agencies have announced that the unemployment rate in industrialized countries has increased over the past 12 months to levels comparable to those in the 1930s and malnutrition rates have increased by 11%, primarily in developing countries. Even if an economic recovery is imminent, for those who remain jobless the crisis is not over and its social and human costs persist.”
Archbishop Migliore made his remarks on October 22; the Holy See Press Office released them on October 28.
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