CAFOD supporters will be travelling to Parliament to discuss Pope Francis's call to mark the Jubilee by cancelling debts
CAFOD's parliamentary reception will be a great opportunity to discuss with your MP Pope Francis's call for us to be "signs of hope" during Jubilee 2025, pushing for rich governments to cancel debts "of countries that will never be able to repay them".
Why do we need to cancel debts?
The global debt crisis is forcing governments in low- and middle-income countries to pay huge interest bills to big banks at the expense of tackling poverty.
54 countries are in debt crisis. This means that hundreds of millions of people are living in countries where governments are having to spend more on repaying debt interest than on education or healthcare or measures to protect their communities from floods or droughts.
What can MPs do to push for debt cancellation?
More than 90 per cent of loans granted by big banks are governed by English law. This makes the UK a global debt 'superpower'.
It also means MPs can play a crucial part in ending the global debt crisis.
We want to ask our MPs to play their part in two ways:
By writing to the Chancellor and urging the government to pass a 'Debt Justice Law' that would force private lenders to cooperate in debt relief negotiations for countries in crisis.
By calling for the government to support the creation of a fair global debt system in which debtor countries are properly represented and in which human and environmental rights are prioritised.
What is the connection between Jubilee 2025 and debt cancellation?
A Jubilee in the Church is historically a time for cancelling debt and restoring equality that dates from the Old Testament.
Pope Francis has called for many years for unjust debts to be cancelled – and this has been at the centre of his appeals for us to be "signs of hope" during the Jubilee year.
In his message for the World Day of Peace 2025, the Pope drew a comparison between "the elites at the time of Jesus" who "profited from the suffering of the poor" and an international financial system "which leave[s] the poorer countries trapped".
The Holy Father, echoing calls from Pope St John Paul II around the time of Jubilee 2000, urged rich countries to tackle the debt crisis "of those countries that are in no condition to repay the amount they owe". Francis also called for a new financial framework to prevent debt crises arising in future.
Learn more about the global debt crisis
We've put together a set of answers to some of the most commonly-asked questions about the global debt crisis.