Honduran cardinal presses Britain to do more to alleviate poverty

Published: 2005-06-01

LONDON (CNS) -- A Latin American cardinal has lobbied the British government to step up its efforts to alleviate global poverty. Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, visited Gordon Brown, Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, or chief finance minister, May 26 to encourage him to place poverty in Africa at the top of the agenda at the Group of Eight summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in July. Cardinal Rodriguez also wanted Brown to raise the issue at a June 10 meeting of the Group of Seven finance ministers in London, held in preparation for the summit of the leaders of the world's seven wealthy industrialized nations, plus Russia. Leading a delegation of church leaders from the Third World, Cardinal Rodriguez told Brown that the prominence given to Africa at the G-8 summit was a "great opportunity we must not miss."

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