Our efforts cannot and should not substitute for just public policies and effective programs to meet the needs of the hungry...Money, food, and time donated to Catholic charities should not be misread as a sign for success for volunteerism, but rather a desperate attempt to feed the hungry people when others have abandoned their responsibility.
The Catholic community, with many others, has long worked for this new commitment on global health and debt relief (President George W. Bushs proposed $15 billion Global AIDS initiative). I hope that Congress will now appropriate the money needed to make this legislation a reality, and that the U.S. government will press for strengthening the debt relief program along the lines proposed by this legislation.
The merits of deeper debt cancellation, when accompanied by conditions of accountability and transparency on the part of recipient countries, have been shown to generate much needed resources for health, education and poverty reduction for some of the world's poorest people.
