U.S. bishop calls for initiatives to spur growth in poor countries

Published: 2004-09-22

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The head of the U.S. bishops' international policy committee is calling on foreign governments to develop new initiatives to combat poverty and spur development in poor countries. Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., said in a letter to U.S. Treasurer John Snow that debt relief should not be used in a way to curtail development in poor countries. Bishop Ricard said he was concerned that under a proposal backed by the Bush administration that would cancel the debt of poor countries, multilateral creditors can recover their losses by reducing new lending to poor countries. "This would mean that the debt cancellation would provide no new resources for development. We would be very concerned about such an outcome because, for us, debt cancellation is not about adjusting accounts but about combating poverty," he said in the Sept. 20 letter.

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