Pope’s call for debt forgiveness is worth supporting

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This article was published 28/12/2024 (286 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Dec. 24, Pope Francis opened the holy doors at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to launch the 2025 Year of Jubilee.

The door, which is normally sealed between Jubilee years, was opened to permit pilgrims to access the Basilica. It represents Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who is quoted in John 10:9 as saying, “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me, will be saved safe. He will go in and out, and find pasture.”

Years of Jubilee in the Roman Catholic church are normally held every 25 years; the first one was called in 1300. In 2025, an estimated 32 million pilgrims are expected to visit Rome.

In calling for a Year of Jubilee, the Pope called on wealthy countries and institutions to substantially reduce, if not outright cancel, the debts owed by the world’s poorer nations.

Many of these poorer countries, he said, “are in no condition to repay the amount they owe.” In addition to calling for the forgiveness of their debts, he proposed the need for a new financial framework “lest this prove merely an isolated act of charity that simply reboots the vicious cycle of financing and indebtedness.”

This new framework should be based on “solidarity and harmony between people,’’ he said, adding this growing debt “threatens the future of many nations.”

In calling for debt relief for poorer countries, the Pope was taking seriously the biblical tradition of Jubilee.

The idea of Jubilee comes from the Hebrew Bible, or what Christians call the Old Testament. Observed every 50 years, it was a time when the poor and oppressed would be released from their debts and slaves were set free.

It was also a time when land was returned to its original owners — a radical notion since it meant property could not be sold in perpetuity. This had the practical effect of ensuring that land was not concentrated in a small number of hands, and spiritually served as a reminder that nothing on earth truly belongs to human beings.

Economically and socially, the Year of Jubilee provided a kind of national reset, preventing the over-concentration of land and wealth in a few hands and giving everyone a fresh start.

Along with the Holy Door at St. Peter’s to mark the start of the Year of Jubilee, the Pope also opened three other holy doors in Rome. And, for the first time, opened a fifth sacred portal on Dec. 26 — at a local prison.

It was, the Vatican’s news service said, a gesture of hope that shows the Pope’s ongoing concern for prisoners and detainees, an attitude which has been consistent throughout his pontificate.

In opening that prison door, Francis invited anyone locked inside whatever kind of prison “to look to the future with hope and a renewed sense of confidence.”

The Pope’s message about debt and prisons was echoed by Caritas International, the Roman Catholic Church’s relief and development organization.

Noting that a key part of a jubilee in the Bible was releasing prisoners, it called on Catholics today to join an effort to release thousands of people imprisoned in poverty because of their nations’ foreign debt.

In launching a five-year campaign titled Turn Debt into Hope for 2025, Caritas noted that while debt is incurred by national governments, it is individuals and families, including many children, who pay the price.

According to the organization, about 60 per cent of low-income nations “are nearing debt distress, limiting their ability to invest in people’s futures. As debt repayments outweigh spending on health care and education, 3.3 billion people are being denied vital services, driving poverty and inequality even further.”

One Winnipeger who is very much in support of the Pope’s call for debt forgiveness is Dougald Lamont, former leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party.

Today, when people are looking for solutions to the economic challenges facing Canada and the world at large, Jubilee is relevant, he said, “because we are living in a world distorted by debt.”

This debt “leads to concentrated wealth and income for a few, and insecurity for pretty much everyone else.”

In a Substack on this topic, Lamont went on to argue that this forgiveness of debts was the message of Jesus at the beginning of his ministry. Using words from the prophet Isaiah, Jesus said he was anointed to proclaim good news to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and to “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

By referencing the “year of the Lord’s favour,” Lamont said, Jesus was indicating his ministry wasn’t only spiritual but was to have practical implications such as debt forgiveness — a huge issue at a time when there was great economic disparity between the rich and the poor.

For Lamont, the idea of jubilee and debt forgiveness “mesh perfectly with Christ’s other teachings on peace and forgiveness,” teachings that are “the peaceful alternative to conflict that is tearing societies apart … when things collapse and there is division and hate as we see it today, it is because we are not doing what the Bible teaches — that rather than punish with debt, we can forgive it.”

You can read Lamont’s reflections about debt and the Year of Jubilee at wfp.to/A2W.

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