蜜桃交友

By Lisa Zengarini

The President of the Catholic Bishops鈥� Conference of England (CBCEW), Cardinal Vincent Nichols鈥�, has expressed concern at plans to reduce Government expenditure on overseas aid from 0.7% of Gross national income to 0.5%, amounting to approximately £4 billion compared to the 2019 budget. The cut, which will have a significant impact on aid programmes for poor countries, was announced earlier this week by Chancellor Rishi Sunak and has been criticized, amongst others, by the Primate of the Church of England, Justin Welby.

Letter to all MPs

In a letter to all MPs, Cardinal Nichols called on all parties not to step back from the Country鈥檚 responsibilities to the world鈥檚 most vulnerable people in these trying times, recalling the promises they made on aid spending at the last General election. 鈥淭he great tragedies of forced mass migration and human trafficking must be tackled at their source鈥�, he said. 鈥淐arefully targeted and well managed overseas aid programmes are an essential part of this effort. In the face of these catastrophes, this is no time to reduce the UK鈥檚 contribution or effort鈥�.

Quoting Pope Francis鈥� words in his recent , the Archbihop of Westminster warned that 鈥渘owadays we are either all saved together or no one is saved鈥� and that that if in some parts of our world 鈥渋ndividuals or peoples are prevented from developing their potential by poverty or other structural limitations, in the end, this will impoverish us all鈥�. (FT §137).

COVID-19 emergency

Cardinal particularly stressed the need for help to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in poorer countries which, he said, 鈥渨ill necessarily mean richer countries supporting poorer ones in purchasing vaccines for their people and helping to roll out mass vaccination programmes鈥�. 鈥淐ombatting COVID-19 is an international endeavour and we cannot neglect those countries that benefit from our aid鈥�, he concluded.