Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

As world leaders prepared to meet in Australia on Nov. 15-16 to continue looking at ways to improve the global economy, Pope Francis asked them “not to forget that many lives are at stake” behind their discussions and decisions. The measure of success of the Group of 20 heavily industrialized and emerging-market countries will be found not in statistics but in “real improvements in the living conditions of poorer families and the reduction of all forms of unacceptable inequality,” the pope said. The pope’s message to Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia, host of the G-20 summit, was released on Nov. 11 at the Vatican. “Throughout the world, the G-20 countries included, there are far too many women and men suffering from severe malnutrition, a rise in the number of the unemployed, an extremely high percentage of young people without work and an increase in social exclusion which can lead to criminal activity and even the recruitment of terrorists,” the papal message said.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Mike Evans
10 years 7 months ago
But does anyone really care about world-wide hunger? Most pundits and commentators want to blame the poor for causing their own conditions through lack of birth control, education, political activity or "bootstrapping" on their own despite the hardships and barriers. The real issue as proven by many economists, is that each human person is worth at least 25 times their lifetime earnings. The real culprits are the multi-national companies who bribe and steal their way into power, the residual nobility who own the land and all means of production, and the governments who accept those bribes and monetary donations to improve their own personal lives to the detriment of those who suffer.

The latest from america

Pope Leo XIV has appointed the French archbishop of Chambéry, Thibault Verny, as the new president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He succeeds Cardinal Seán O’Malley, 81, the emeritus archbishop of Boston.
Gerard O’ConnellJuly 05, 2025
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks with other members of the House July 3, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington after final passage of U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping spending and tax bill. (OSV News photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)
“Deep cuts” to SNAP and Medicaid will “inflict real suffering on these families…. SNAP and Medicaid are not luxuries, they are lifelines for millions of children across our country.”
Kevin ClarkeJuly 03, 2025
It was one of the first times Leo has spoken unscripted at length in public, responding to questions posed to him by the children.
The Vatican has named the judges that will preside over the trial of disgraced Father Marko Rupnik.