CRS official says Afghanistan needs war against poverty

Published: 2005-09-22

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As international troops continue their fight against terrorism in Afghanistan, the world community should be waging war against the country's grinding poverty, said one Catholic relief worker. "It's the war on poverty that needs to be won, because if we don't change this, then the people will be easier prey for the insurgents," said P.M. Jose, Afghanistan country representative for Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency. "The international community has to choose to be in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan," because decades of war, military intervention and outside control have rendered the country "in need and vulnerable," he told Catholic News Service. Jose was part of a Sept. 22 meeting hosted by the Vatican-based Caritas Internationalis, an umbrella organization for Catholic charities. Caritas partners working in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan meet once a year at Caritas headquarters at the Vatican to review their projects' progress and needs.

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