Pontifical academy, Columbia University initiative issue Jubilee Report on debt crisis

June 23, 2025

The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and Columbia University’s Initiative for Policy Dialogue have issued The Jubilee Report: A Blueprint for Tackling the Debt and Development Crises and Creating the Financial Foundations for a Sustainable People-Centered Global Economy.

The report was issued on June 20, during a workshop organized by the two entities (agenda).

The Jubilee Report, commissioned by Pope Francis, concluded:

Addressing the crises of the moment, however urgent, is not enough. If we do not reform the system itself, we will continue to reproduce the very dynamics that led us here. The international financial architecture must be redesigned to create sustained access to the financing needed for inclusive growth, climate, and structural transformations, as well as to enable just and efficient debt resolutions.

Yet even that will not be enough. Debt is only one pillar of a global economic order that is not conducive to lasting peace, sustainable development and shared prosperity for the global community. If we are to reach those goals, we must go further. We must reform the entire architecture of the global economy and the systems that shape opportunity and distribute risk across the world: the rules for taxation, for trade, and for the creation and diffusion of knowledge. A true Jubilee of multilateralism.

This Jubilee Report is the first step in a more ambitious endeavor to propose a comprehensive framework of just and sustainable Jubilee rules, rooted in solidarity, to guide the transformation of the global economy in service of the prosperity and peace of the peoples of the world.

During his opening remarks at the workshop, Cardinal Peter Turkson, the pontifical academy’s chancellor, said that “your gathering today seeks to engage in serious dialogue on the national and international actions needed to address one of the most pressing moral challenges of our time: the interlinked crises of debt and development that weigh heavily on dozens of countries and inflict deep suffering on hundreds of millions of families across the world.”

“Not all financing serves the common good,” he continued. “Finance must be at the service of people. It must reflect a shared responsibility between those who receive funds and those who provide them. Its impact depends on the terms it carries, on how it is deployed, and—critically—on how any resulting debt is managed when difficulties arise. No creditor and no government can, in good conscience, impose sacrifices on a population that deprive them of the essentials of a dignified life.”

Cardinal Turkson added:

Addressing this crisis demands a collective response—from creditors, debtor countries, and the international financial institutions. Justice and solidarity must be our compass. We must act in good faith, guided by truth, and animated by ethical standards worthy of human dignity. An international code of conduct is urgently needed—one that upholds fairness, transparency, and sustainability. Let us build on the foundations laid by the Jubilee Report to reimagine a more humane and equitable financial architecture.

 

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Further information:

• The Jubilee Report (Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences)
• Addressing the Debt and Development Crises in Developing Countries (Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences)