Pax Christi USA is one of more than two dozen national Catholic organizations, including the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas-Justice Team, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Franciscan Action Network, and the National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, to name only a few, that have signed a new letter to President Biden urging him to take clear steps to ensure needed debt relief for impoverished countries.
The letter asks that the president take action by supporting the issuance of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which would allow poorer countries to repay debt or to purchase food and/or medicine, or to strengthen their reserves. Biden can take this action in his executive role; no Congressional approval is necessary, and it can be done at no cost to the United States.
This would be an appropriate step to take as we prepare to enter the new Jubilee year.
Read the entire letter with signatories below.
December 18, 2024
We, the undersigned Catholic leaders and organizations, write to urge you to use your executive authority to provide people around the world with direly needed relief from their suffering in the face of poverty, hunger, and natural disaster, by supporting a new issuance of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Such a move will cap your legacy of global leadership.
As we approach the 2025 Jubilee, Pope Francis has made clear that our faith calls us to strive toward a more just global economic order, and to support people who are left behind by the inequities of the present order. There is much work to be done to fulfill this calling. Throughout the Year of Jubilee, we will join our brothers and sisters around the world in promoting a broad agenda of relief for poor and indebted nations.
But there is one action that you alone can take today, at no cost to the United States and without congressional approval, that would provide much-needed relief to indebted countries and the people that call them home: supporting a new issuance of SDRs.
As you are aware, SDRs are a reserve asset issued by the IMF to its member states in times of need. These SDRs can be used to repay debt, exchanged for hard currency to finance critical imports like food and medicine, or held onto to bolster foreign reserves and avert monetary crises.
In 2021, you supported a new issuance of $650 billion in SDRs at the IMF. We commend you for this decision, which in one fell swoop provided the developing world with more resources than an entire year of foreign aid from all countries. These resources were used to purchase and distribute vaccines, to care for the vulnerable, and to invest in health care for the poor. Hundreds of thousands of lives were likely saved.
The conditions facing the world today demand your support once more. Amidst an accelerating debt crisis, increasingly catastrophic climate change-driven natural disasters, and economic shocks exacerbated by international conflict, humanity is facing a perilous path ahead.
As fellow Catholics, we are called by our faith to do all that we can to alleviate the suffering of others. You have an opportunity to do so on a nearly unprecedented scale, impacting the lives of millions at no cost, with little more than the stroke of a pen. We urge you to do so.
Sincerely,
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
- Adrian Dominican Sisters
- All-Africa Conference: Sister to Sister
- Benedictines for Peace
- Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, U.S. Provinces
- Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes
- Daughters of Wisdom US JPIC Office
- Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa Peace and Justice Office
- Franciscan Action Network
- Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart
- Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, USA-JPIC
- Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Loreto Generalate
- Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network – Africa
- Leadership Team of the Felician Sisters of North America.
- Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
- Medical Mission Sisters, Justice Office
- National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
- NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
- Pax Christi USA
- Roman Union Ursulines of the United States
- Sisters Adorers of the Blood of Christ US Region JPIC Office
- Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill
- Sisters of Christian Charity
- Sisters of Mercy of the Americas – Justice Team
- Sisters of the Precious Blood
- Union of Sisters of the Presentation of BVM – USA Province
CALIFORNIA
Sisters of the Presentation San Francisco, CA
ILLINOIS
Chicago Benedictines for Peace
INDIANA
Sisters of Providence of SMW
IOWA
Sisters of St. Francis of Clinton, Iowa
NEW YORK
- Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Albany
- Sisters of Charity of New York, Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation
OHIO
Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati Office of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation
PENNSYLVANIA
- Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Greensburg, PA
- Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia
- Benedictine Sisters of Erie
WASHINGTON
Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Office of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation
WISCONSIN
Servants of Mary, Ladysmith, Wisconsin
OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
- Mount Saint Mary House of Prayer
- Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters
- Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Congregational Leadership
- Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Western Province Leadership
INDIVIDUALS
- Sister Mary Richardine Blue, RSM, Arizona
- Sister Helen Marie Burns, RSM, Michigan
- Sister Catherine Darcy, RSM, New York
- Sister Karen Donahue, RSM, Michigan
- Sister Suzanne Gallagher, RSM, Pennsylvania
- Sister Jan Ginzkey, OSB, Colorado
- Sister Mary Ellen Howard, RSM, Michigan
- Sister Diane Koorie, RSM, Oklahoma
- Sister Maria Klosowski, RSM, Michigan
- Elizabeth Lutz
- Sister Margaret McBride, RSM, Arizona
- Sister Maureen Mulcrone, RSM, Michigan
- Jennifer Morin-Williamson, Coordinator, Sisters of the Precious Blood, Ohio
- Sister Rose Therese Nolta, SSpS, Illinois
- Sister Kate O’Donnell OSF, Pennsylvania
- Sister Maria Orlandini OSF, Sister and Director of Advocacy, Franciscan Action Network
- Sister Benvinda Pereira, RSM, Arizona
- Fran Quigley, Indianapolis, Indiana
- William Quigley, Emeritus Professor, Loyola Law, Louisiana
- Gabriel Silvano
- Jean Stokan, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
- Sister Eileen P. Smith, RSM, New Jersey
THANK YOU ALL for your commitment, your work. You are in our prayers — prayers of deep gratitude!
Thank God for the brave Sisters and Women in the Church. Perhaps our cowardly bishops and male clergy should look to them for inspiration on this and a myriad of other social justice causes.
David-Ross Gerling, PhD