Over one thousand people from across the country gathered at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, CA October 27-28, 2006 to discuss ways to reduce global poverty at a national conference sponsored by several major Catholic organizations, including the USF Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought and the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
The conference titled “Point 7 Now! Mobilizing American Catholic Faithful to End Global Poverty” focused on the Millennium Development Goals and the need for fair trade, debt forgiveness and increased aid to poor countries in order to end extreme poverty, or, as keynote speaker Jeffrey Sachs explained, the poverty the kills. The phrase Point 7 Now! refers to the commitment made by developed countries to increase foreign aid to poor countries to .7% of a developed country’s national income (US foreign aid is at .2% now). At the same time, poor developing countries promised reforms to improve transparency, democracy and anti-corruption efforts to ensure that increased foreign aid would reduce poverty.
In addition to featuring spectacular speakers representing a wide range of issues including Sunitha Krishnan (Prajwala), Charity Musamba (Jubilee Zambia), Peter Kimeu (Catholic Relief Services), Cardinal Renato Martino (Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace), David O’Brien (College of the Holy Cross) and Margaret O’Brien Steinfels (Fordham Center for Religion and Public Life), the conference encouraged participants to develop strategies for promoting the Catholic Campaign Against Global Poverty. This campaign, sponsored jointly by CRS and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, is a multi-year advocacy effort to increase and improve US foreign aid, reduce and cancel the debt of poor countries, and promote just trade policies. As San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer said in a recent article, “Ending global poverty is one of the great challenges of our time that requires urgent political will and solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the world.”
Conference Texts:
John Donahue, SJ To Hear the Cry of the Poor: A Prophetic Challenge, A Gospel Summons
Margaret O'Brien Steinfels A Response that Penetrates and Unites the Catholic Community in the US
David O'Brien A Response that Penetrates and Unites the Catholic Community in the US
