Pope Francis appealed for a global recovery plan for the coronavirus pandemic in a message to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
In a letter published by the Vatican on April 8, the pope called for a comprehensive approach to rebuilding the world economy in the wake of COVID-19.
“While many countries are now consolidating individual recovery plans, there remains an urgent need for a global plan,” said the pope.
He stressed the need to create new, or regenerate, existing institutions to advance “the integral human development of all peoples.”
“This necessarily means giving poorer and less developed nations an effective share in decision-making and facilitating access to the international market,” he said.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, will present the pope’s message during the April 5-11 meetings of the international financial institutions.
“In this past year, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, our world has been forced to confront a series of grave and interrelated socio-economic, ecological, and political crises,” wrote the pope.
“It is my hope that your discussions will contribute to a model of ‘recovery’ capable of generating new, more inclusive, and sustainable solutions to support the real economy, assisting individuals and communities to achieve their deepest aspirations and the universal common good,” he added.
He said the notion of recovery “cannot be content to a return to an unequal and unsustainable model of economic and social life, where a tiny minority of the world’s population owns half of its wealth.”
Pope Francis urged the World Bank and IMF’s experts to focus on “the interconnectedness between people.”
Citing his recent encyclical, Fratelli tutti, he encouraged them to build a “culture of encounter” by including the marginalized in “long-term inclusive projects.”
The pope repeated his call for the cancelation of the debts of poor countries battling COVID-19, which he first made in his Easter “Urbi et Orbi” address in 2020.
