Head of the "Mission and Social Affairs" department of the Austrian Conference of Religious Orders calls for structural responsibility - Dicastery for Integral Development calls for comprehensive debt relief and reform of the international financial system
The Austrian nun Sister Anneliese Herzig calls for an ethical, political, and economic rethink regarding the indebtedness of poorer countries. The occasion is the recent Vatican document "Holy Year 2025: Remission of the Ecological Debt," in which the Dicastery for Integral Development calls not only for far-reaching debt relief for the poorest countries, but also for the recognition of ecological debt as a moral obligation of industrialized nations. Sr. Herzig, head of the Mission and Social Affairs Sector at the Conference of Religious Orders, sees this as a call for structural responsibility and a reversal of the mere alms mentality.
"Justice begins with the recognition of ecological debt," Sr. Herzig summarizes the Vatican document in a statement on the religious orders' website. The ecological costs of decades of resource consumption by rich countries in the global North are currently primarily borne by the countries of the global South. In addition to financial debt, this represents a structural burden that massively hinders social and economic development. (...)