Pope calls for debt reduction for poorer countries to mark the Vatican's 2025 Jubilee Year

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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Thursday called on wealthy countries and institutions to substantially reduce if not outright cancel debt as a matter of justice on the occasion of the Vatican's 2025 Jubilee Year.

In a message for world peace, Francis referred to St. John Paul II’s admonition in Jubilee Year 2000 that debt “threatens the future of many nations.”

He noted that many countries “are in no condition to repay the amount they owe,’’ and called for a new financial framework “lest this prove merely an isolated act of charity that simply reboots the vicious cycle of financing and indebtedness.”

A new framework should be based on “solidarity and harmony between people,’’ said the Argentine-born pope, who has repeatedly called for debt relief for the poorer southern hemisphere.

The pope has underlined the Jubilee Year as an opportunity to cancel debt. The once-every-quarter-century event formally begins on Christmas Eve, when Francis opens the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica. It is expected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to Rome.