CBCI president joins Church leaders in fight against poverty

New Delhi – Cardinal Telesphore P. Toppo of Ranchi archdiocese and the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) has joined five other Church leaders from developing nations in the Church’s fight against poverty. Their aim? To pressurize European Union (EU) to fight poverty and help the United Nations fulfill its Millennium Development Goals.

The high power Church delegation ended its seven–day lobby tour of European capitals on May 31. On the last day, the Church leaders met European Commission president José Manuel Barroso in Brussels.

Earlier, the Church leaders met among others, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and British Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) Gordon Brown, according to news reports. The delegation also Berlin, Paris and London in their campaign against poverty.

Besides Cardinal Toppo, the members in the delegation included Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradia, Archbishop of Tegucicalpa in Honduras, Archbishop Berhaneyesus Souraphiel of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Archbishop Medardo Joseph Mazombwe from Zambia and Archbishop John Onaiyekan from Nigeria.

The Cooperation Internationale pour le Development et la Solidarity (CIDSE, international cooperation for development and solidarity) organized the tour. The CIDSE is an alliance of 15 Catholic development agencies.

The Church leaders urged European officials to take ”urgent action” to eradicate poverty as they prepare for the Group of Eight (G8) meeting of the world's wealthiest countries in Gleneagles, Scotland in July.

The G8 countries are the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, Britain, Italy, France and Germany.

In Brussels, the Church leaders impressed upon President Barroso that Europe has a crucial role to play in the eradication of poverty from the world. They also urged the President to help realize the Millennium Development Goals.

Launched in July 2002, the Millennium Project is an independent advisory project commissioned by UN Secretary–General Kofi Annan and supported by the UN Development Group.

The project aims to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, reduce child mortality, promote gender equality and empower women, improve maternal health Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and to ensure environmental sustainability.

A millennium summit of 189 world leaders in September 2000 pledged to meet all of these goals by 2015. A summit later this year will review progress towards the goals and set the development agenda for the next decade.

Working in cooperation with developing countries and other partners, the project has set up an expert task force to prepare strategies to help countries achieve the goals by bringing together the best current thinking and research. Its work includes reviewing innovative practices, prioritizing policy reforms, identifying means of policy implementation and evaluating financing options.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Special Advisor to the Secretary–General on the Millennium Development Goals and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University directs the Millennium Project.

To fulfill the project, the Church leaders asked European nations to take various steps such as forming a new north–south development partnership besides increasing the amount of resources available for aid.

They also urged the European Union to take steps to cancel debts and to reverse the unequal global trade system.