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In
a letter to the participants of the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank's annual spring meeting, the pope said the
pandemic had forced the world to come to terms with interrelated
socioeconomic, ecological, and political crises.
"The notion of recovery cannot be content to a return to an
unequal and unsustainable model of economic and social life,
where a tiny minority of the world's population owns half of its
wealth," the pontiff said in the letter dated April 4.
He called for a new "global plan" that "necessarily means giving
poorer and less developed nations an effective share in
decision-making and facilitating access to the international
market."
A spirit of global solidarity "demands at the least a
significant reduction in the debt burden of the poorest nations,
which has been exacerbated by the pandemic," he said.
Financial chiefs of the Group of 20 large economies on Wednesday
extended a suspension of debt servicing costs for developing
countries but fell short of cancelling debt or expanding debt
relief as requested by non-profit organisations.
Financial markets need to be underpinned by laws and regulations
that ensure they work for the common good, the pope said,
calling for "a justly financed vaccine solidarity."
"We cannot allow the law of the marketplace to take precedence
over the law of love and the health of all," he said.
With inoculation campaigns in poor African countries lagging far
behind those of the rich world, particularly the United States
and Britain, the pope appealed to political and business leaders
to provide "vaccines for all, especially for the most vulnerable
and needy."
(Reporting by Gavin Jones; Edited by Crispian Balmer)
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