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“We have no intention of being accomplices in barbarities and are scandalized by the suffering caused by poverty”: words that Cardinal Keith O’ Brien, archbishop of Edinburgh, will address to the participants in the great anti-poverty event being planned in the city on 2 July on the occasion of the meeting for the foreign ministers of the G8 at Gleaneagles in Scotland. According to the archbishop, who supports the campaign “Make Poverty History” for the cancellation of the debt of the world’s poorest countries and in favour of a form of international trade that responds to the criteria of justice to help their development, poverty “is a crime against humanity, a great injustice to which we are all called to respond”, because to “remain passive is to be accomplices in barbarities”. Cardinal O’ Brien, who is also chairman of SCIAF (Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund), says he “feels shame for the world’s response to the truly inhumane conditions” of too many populations of the African continent and appeals to the leaders of the G8 to “listen to the voice of their citizens and remember the great good they can do”. For those unable to travel to Edinburgh on 2 July, a mass officiated by Archbishop Mario Conti will be simultaneously celebrated in Glasgow. “We are aware that many people, who would like to participate in the celebration in Edinburgh and who fully approve its aims, will be unable to do so because of commitments of work, old age or conditions of health – explained Conti -. That’s why I decided to celebrate a mass in St. Andrew’s Cathedral on 2 July at 1.00 pm, which anyone who supports the anti-poverty campaign will be welcome to attend and pray with us for a more just world”.
