Development and Peace — Caritas Canada invites you to the launch webinar of the Share Lent 2025 campaign under the theme Turn Debt into Hope.

This global campaign, led by Caritas Internationalis and others, responds to Pope Francis’ Jubilee 2025 call to “forgive the debts of countries that will never be able to repay them.” (Spes non confundit, §16).

Join us and our special guests to learn more:

• Dean Dettloff, our Advocacy Officer, will talk about the campaign and the debt burden facing many impoverished countries.
• Javier Jahncke, a human rights lawyer from our Peruvian partner CEAS, will highlight Peru’s ecological debt and the severe environmental and human rights consequences of resource exploitation.

* Webinar with interpretation into French, English and Spanish.

When: Saturday, March 1st, 2025 at 1:30 p.m. ET

Where: online on Zoom. Please click to register.

2025 is a Jubilee year. In Biblical tradition, debts were cancelled, slaves were freed and the land was allowed to rest in jubilee years. So Pope Francis calls on us to be “Pilgrims of Hope”; asking the world “to forgive the debts of countries that will never be able to repay them.”

Today, more than 100 countries in the Global South are facing a debt crisis, as the structural causes of indebtedness have not changed. The situation has worsened with predatory lending, exorbitant interest rates and global inflation. More than 3.3 billion people live in countries that must spend more on repaying foreign debt than on health or education preventing an investment in their own people.

For many countries, the debt is too big to repay, and has become a crushing burden for current and future generations, creating a sense of hopelessness and futility.

Pope Francis also calls our attention in Laudato Si’ to the injustice brought on by the “ecological debt” owed by the Global North for exploitation of resources and destruction of environment. This destruction drives climate change, which most adversely effects societies in the Global South that are least responsible for it. We believe that recognizing ecological debt is a vital step toward addressing the global debt crisis and creating a sustainable, just future for all.