In his World Day of Peace Message for the Jubilee Year 2025, Pope Francis called for the cancellation of foreign debts of poor countries, proposed a new international financial framework and appealed for an end to the death penalty.
The message is dedicated to the theme “Forgive us our Trespasses: Grant us your Peace,” underscoring the deep meaning of the Jubilee tradition that reminds us that we are all “in debt” to God, who in His infinite mercy and love forgives our sins and calls upon us to forgive those who trespass against us, Vatican News reports.
Recalling that in the Jewish tradition, the Jubilee was a special year of universal remission of sins and debts liberating the oppressed, the Pope notes that in our day too, this special year of grace “is an event that inspires us to seek to establish the liberating justice of God in our world,” marred by injustices and “systemic” challenges that Saint John Paul II termed “structures of sin.”
He also cited the inhuman treatment inflicted on migrants, environmental degradation, “the confusion wilfully created by disinformation, the refusal to engage in any form of dialogue, and the immense resources spent on the industry of war.”
“Each of us must feel in some way responsible for the devastation to which the earth, our common home, has been subjected, beginning with those actions that, albeit only indirectly, fuel the conflicts that presently plague our human family,” he writes.
“Each of us must feel in some way responsible for the devastation to which the earth, our common home, has been subjected, beginning with those actions that, albeit only indirectly, fuel the conflicts that presently plague our human family.”
These “interconnected” challenges, Pope Francis argued, demand not “sporadic acts of philanthropy” but “cultural and structural changes” to “break the bonds of injustice and to proclaim God’s justice.”
Referencing Saint Basil of Caesarea, the Pope reminds us that everything we claim as our own is, in fact, a gift from God and that therefore the resources of the earth are intended for the benefit of all humanity, “not just a privileged few.”
By losing sight of our relationship with God, he says, human interactions become tainted by the logic of exploitation and oppression, “where might makes right.”
This mirrors the dynamics of elites in Jesus’ time, who thrived on the suffering of the poor and finds resonance in today’s globalized world, which perpetuates injustices as showcased by the debt crisis trapping poorer nations in the Global South in a vicious circle of dependency and inequality.
“Foreign debt has become a means of control whereby certain governments and private financial institutions of the richer countries unscrupulously and indiscriminately exploit the human and natural resources of poorer countries, simply to satisfy the demands of their own markets,” he noted.
In addition, “different peoples, already burdened by international debt, find themselves also forced to bear the burden of the ‘ecological debt’ incurred by the more developed countries.”
In the spirit of this Jubilee Year, Pope Francis therefore reiterated his plea for the international community to work towards forgiving foreign debt in recognition of the ecological debt existing between the North and the South of this world. “This is an appeal for solidarity, but above all for justice,” he emphasizes.
“The cultural and structural change needed will come about when we finally recognize that we are all sons and daughters of the one Father, that we are all in his debt but also that we need one another, in a spirit of shared and diversified responsibility,” he wrote.
“The cultural and structural change needed will come about when we finally recognize that we are all sons and daughters of the one Father, that we are all in his debt but also that we need one another, in a spirit of shared and diversified responsibility.”
Following in the footsteps of Saint Paul VI and Benedict XVI, Pope Francis reiterated his appeal to divert “at least a fixed percentage of the money” earmarked for armaments towards a global fund to eradicate hunger and foster sustainable development in poorer nations, helping them combat climate change.
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Pope’s World Day of Peace message: ‘We are all in debt to God’ (Vatican News)
Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the 58th World Day of Peace [1st January 2025] (Vatican.va)