The Church in Spain supports the campaign for the remission of foreign debt and presents itself as a “ferment of solidarity and concord”, declares Bishop Ricardo Blázquez Perez of Bilbao, President of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, in a statement issued today on the conclusion of the General Assembly of Spanish bishops held in Madrid. The statement declares the bishops’ support for the campaign on foreign debt remission promoted by some Catholic aid organizations and associations, including Mani Unite, Confer (the body that brings together the religious congregations) and Caritas. “We cannot remain indifferent to the suffering of so many people”, writes Blázquez. “We think it is our duty to appeal, at the top of our voice, for measures aimed at the elimination of the debt, given that its remission, whether total or partial, is a precondition to enable the poorest countries to effectively combat poverty and deprivation”, says the statement. “As a matter of urgency the obligation to pay needs to be transformed into investment and programmes and projects of integral development: human, cultural, spiritual, medical, agricultural, educational and those for the promotion of women”. The bishops appeal to the Spanish authorities to “put into practice objectively generous measures that may have as their result the relief of the burden of foreign debt”. “We need to prevent this remission, total or partial, being transformed into the purchase of weapons or into economic benefits for the rulers of the beneficiary countries, i.e. be used for socially unnecessary works that exclusively pursue the prestige and the reinforcement of these governments or that are aimed at actions contrary to the moral order, such as birth control campaigns”.
