Federal lawmakers chided for not attending global poverty conference

Published: 2007-11-16

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- A San Francisco Catholic official wrote letters in early November to California's two U.S. Democratic senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and three other federal lawmakers to voice "deep disappointment" that none of them attended a conference on global poverty held at St. Mary's Cathedral. George Wesolek, director of the Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said he could only surmise "elimination of global poverty" is not a priority for them. The Point7Now! Action Conference Oct. 27 was designed to urge federal lawmakers to support legislation aimed at implementing a U.N. mandate to reduce the most dire poverty in the developing world by 2015. Pelosi had a representative at the meeting. In replies to Wesolek some of the other lawmakers said their aides had talked with conference planners prior to the event. The conference focused on foreign aid and trade reforms and a debt-relief measure -- all topics of bills pending in the current congressional session and requiring urgent action, according to conference speakers.

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