Mercy and… DEBT
A new column to explore some world issues in light of the Jubilee, declining the word “mercy”
That evening my eyes widened in front of the TV. Lorenzo Cherubini, aka Jovanotti, picked up a microphone and sang. He had been invited as a guest on the second night of the Sanremo Festival in February 2000, and seconds after the performance began I was certain that I was in for something totally unexpected. I and millions of Italians listened to the song; it was called Cancel the Debt.
The lyrics called for a historic step: the cancellation of the foreign debt of the countries of the Global South, exploited by the industrialized part of the planet. There was no poetry; the words were almost a journalistic piece: “The economy of the countries in which they live is crushed / by a foreign debt so great / that there is not a single penny left / to spend on the development of basic things: / health, education. / The only resource left for the population / is emigration to richer countries / and then we know the story and we know / often how it ends…”
The year was not just any year. Just over a month ago, the Holy Father had opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s, beginning the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.
Another character in the song, the Pope: “Even John Paul II, Pope Wojtyla, / expressed his support for Jubilee 2000 / which is an organization created to put pressure / on those countries that can solve the issue.
To discuss the issues recalled in the song, two days later, Jovanotti was received by Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema, explicitly mentioned in the song: he was accompanied by Bono Vox, the charismatic leader of U2.
Something really moved. Thanks in part to the mobilization born with the Jubilee and new, formally more sustainable debt policies, the situation seemed to improve. Italy, with the collaboration of a Cei foundation, remitted the debt of two African countries, Guinea Conakry and Zambia.
The one in 2000 was my second ordinary Jubilee, but of the first one I cannot have any memory because 1975 is my year of birth. At the age of twenty-five, I was coming into contact with the legal norms of Jubilee found in the text of the Torah.
The Jubilee is connected with the Sabbatical year because it falls after seven Sabbatical years; after seven septenaries, the fiftieth year is the Jubilee year. In the sabbatical year, in addition to the prohibition against working the land, there is the duty of debt forgiveness in favor of debtors. Loans made during the seven-year period, with the coming of the sabbatical year, are no longer due and are understood to be discharged for the benefit of the debtors.
Even today, public debt still affects and starves the poorest countries and those that only know how to get into debt, like Italy. Since last summer, Pope Francis, in the run-up to Jubilee 2025, has called for the cancellation of the external debt of the poorest countries.
From the Scientific Committee of the Toniolo Institute, economist Riccardo Moro reminds us that debt “has become relevant again for an important part of the countries” of the global south and that this burden diverts resources that would otherwise be useful for education and health, as well as for the fight against climate change. But it would be too easy to forget that “because of the raw materials taken away and the costs generated by polluting industrial development, there is also an ‘ecological debt’ from the North to the South.”
The economist also recently launched the idea of a forum at the United Nations to define new rules for responsible lending, indicate criteria for debt sustainability and manage crises.
Twenty-five years later, Carlo Conti announced on Tg1 that “the first super guest of the Sanremo Festival will be Jovanotti who will perform on Tuesday, February 11.” We cannot expect the singer, son of a Vatican employee, to perform another song like Cancel the Debt. The entertainment world would not accept that and it would not be fair either.
He has already done his part. What about us?
Francesco Di Sibio
Head of Social Communications Office
Archdiocese of Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi-Conza-Nusco-Bisaccia
Next topic: Mercy and punishment
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