Debt cancellation is the call to release the poorest and most vulnerable countries from external debts that are unjust or unpayable, together with a reform of the international financial system so that the cycle of indebtedness does not start again. Debt is a normal part of economic life, but it becomes a chain when servicing it takes priority over feeding, healing and educating people. In the light of integral ecology, the “cry of the poor” and the “cry of the earth” meet in debt: countries that have contributed least to the climate crisis are forced to pay creditors rather than invest in resilience, health and development. For the Church, which has long invoked the biblical Jubilee, forgiving debts is not charity, but justice.

WHAT IT MEANS

  • Distinguishing between a contractual financial debt, which deserves to be honoured when it is fair and sustainable, and the unjust or unpayable debt that undermines the dignity of peoples, human rights and the future of a country.
  • Recognizing the link between financial debt and “ecological debt”: wealthy countries have drawn for centuries on the resources and environmental space of the Global South, which now pays the heaviest price for climate change (LS 51–52). For some analysts the two debts are “twin debts” that should be considered together.
  • Understanding that debt cancellation is not enough by itself. The Jubilee 2000 campaign obtained cancellation of about USD 130 billion for 36 countries, but without new rules for responsible lending and borrowing the crises returned. Cancellation must go with reform: a fair, transparent and permanent framework, ideally under the UN, with fair representation of debtors and creditors.
  • Recognizing that the creditors have changed: today about 60% of sovereign debt is owed to private lenders such as banks, bondholders and investment funds, which charge higher interest, are less flexible and can refuse to join debt relief, unlike public creditors.
  • Being cautious about “false solutions”. Debt-for-nature swaps and debt-pause clauses are often promoted, but critics note that swaps reduce debt very little (about 3%, against 21% through restructurings, in one comparison) and may involve high fees and conditions set by third parties, while pause clauses only postpone payments and do not cover slow-onset climate harms. Other proposals, such as using unused Special Drawing Rights to buy back and cancel debt, or redirecting debt service into funds for local ecological projects, are under discussion: what matters is that they bring real relief, transparency and local participation.

WHY THIS MATTERS

  • According to Caritas, CAFOD and SCIAF, we face the most acute global debt crisis in history: more than 50 countries are in debt crisis, and about 3.3 billion people, nearly half of humanity, live in countries that spend more on debt interest than on health or education.
  • Debt and climate reinforce each other: 93% of the most climate-vulnerable countries face debt crisis, many spend five times more on debt servicing than on climate measures, and in 2023 the countries of the Global South devoted to debt payments some 12.5 times more resources than to tackling climate change. Most climate finance still comes as loans, which adds to debt.
  • The costs fall on the poorest: cuts in schools, hospitals and subsidies, rising prices, austerity attached to IMF programmes, and social unrest from Kenya to Sri Lanka. In Africa, debt service is forecast at some USD 88.7 billion in 2025, and African countries borrowing on international markets pay much more than those borrowing from multilateral banks.
  • The record of Jubilee 2000 shows that cancellation works when savings go to public services: in the countries that benefited, children completing primary school rose from 45% to 66%.
  • Political progress remains insufficient. The UN conference on financing for development in Seville (2025) adopted the “Compromiso de Sevilla”, but it did not create the UN-led debt resolution mechanism sought by civil society and by African countries. The Vatican’s Jubilee Report, prepared by a commission chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, and the G20 under the South African presidency kept the topic on the agenda. Many remain disappointed with the pace of change.

WHY IT CONCERNS RELIGIOUS LIFE

  • The Jubilee is at the heart of our biblical tradition: the Yobel, the ram’s horn, announced rest for the land, liberation of captives and cancellation of debts (Lev 25). In the Our Father we pray daily “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”. Pope Francis chose “Forgive us our debts, grant us your peace” as the theme of the World Day of Peace 2025.
  • Missionary Congregations were among the first to denounce the debt crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, and to support the Jubilee 2000 campaign, from the experience of the communities they accompanied. Today we continue to see in the schools, clinics and communities where we serve the effects of unpayable debt on the poorest families.
  • Our vows offer a prophetic alternative to the logic of accumulation and credit as a means of control: poverty frees us from the desire to possess and invites us to share; obedience makes us listen to the cry of the poor; fraternity opens us to relationships of mutual trust and forgiveness.
  • We are also economic actors: we manage funds, investments, properties, loans and credit to projects and partners. A coherent witness invites us to review whether our own financial practices reflect the Jubilee, and to be generous in forgiving debts we are owed by people or partners who cannot repay.
  • Religious networks, with Caritas and Church bodies, are present in the debtor and creditor countries alike, which gives us a special possibility: to give voice to those who suffer the consequences of debt, and to speak to those who can change the rules.

A GOSPEL CALL TODAY

“Forgive us our debts” (Mt 6:12). Jesus announces a year of the Lord’s favour: good news to the poor and release for the captives (Lk 4:18–19). Debt is a modern form of captivity, and the Jubilee reminds us that a system that creates unpayable debts has to be corrected. As Religious, we are called to forgive and to ask for forgiveness, to share what we have and to raise our voice with and for those who are crushed by debts they did not create, so that the Jubilee does not remain a symbolic event but becomes a time of restart, fraternity in justice and action.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCERNMENT

  • How is unjust or unsustainable debt affecting the people and communities we accompany (schools, health care, food prices, migration)? What is it asking of us?
  • What does the Jubilee tradition mean for our Congregation’s own economic life? Are our investments and our credit relations consistent with it, and are there debts we could forgive?
  • How can we make the voice of the debtor communities heard in our own country, especially where our governments, banks or financial institutions are creditors?
  • Which campaigns and networks can we join, as a Congregation, so that debt cancellation and a fairer financial architecture become a real political priority?

REMEMBER:

“If we really wish to prepare a path to peace in our world, let us commit ourselves to remedying the remote causes of injustice, settling unjust and unpayable debts, and feeding the hungry.” (Pope Francis, Spes non confundit 16)

KEY REFERENCES

  • Francis (2024) Spes non confundit, Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 (esp. no. 16).
  • Francis (2024) Message for the World Day of Peace 2025: “Forgive us our debts, grant us your peace”.
  • Francis (2015) Laudato Si’ (esp. nos. 51–52).
  • Jubilee Report (2025), prepared by the commission chaired by Joseph Stiglitz at the request of Pope Francis, presented in June 2025.
  • CAFOD, SCIAF and Caritas Internationalis (2024) Jubilee 2025: The new global debt crisis and its solutions.
  • Nigrizia (April 2025), Bussola “Tassi d’ingiustizia” (articles by M. Pallottino, R. Moro, G. Ballarini and G. Albanese).
  • Debt & Climate Working Group (2025) “Exposing false and distracting finance solutions ahead of COP30”, webinar presentation with Eurodad

KEY RESOURCES

ORIENTATION TO ENGAGEMENT

Debt can seem technical and distant, so each Congregation will find its own way to engage according to its context and charism. Four attitudes can help:

  1. Start from the people. Link the debate to the concrete stories of the communities we serve, and to the services that debt payments take away.
  1. Study with humility. Use the resources of Caritas and Church-linked experts to understand the main concepts and proposals, and to distinguish real solutions from false ones.
  2. Begin with ourselves. Look first at our own finances, loans and investments, in the spirit of the Jubilee.
  3. Act in alliance. Debt reform requires political pressure at the national and international levels. Join Caritas, ecclesial and civil society networks to build a critical mass.

RECOMMENDED INITIATIVE

Turn Debt into Hope is a global campaign promoted by Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of Catholic organizations present in 162 countries, together with Jubilee USA Network and with the support of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. It was presented at the Vatican on 23 December 2024, on the eve of the Jubilee 2025, and Pope Francis invited the faithful to support it in his first Angelus of the Holy Year. The campaign is inspired by the Jubilee tradition and by the Pope’s call to settle unjust and unpayable debts, and is described as a multi-year effort to “finish the unfinished business” of Jubilee 2000.

Its central tool is a petition addressed to creditors and political leaders, with the goal of reaching 10 million signatures. It calls for fair and transparent debt cancellation and restructuring, supported by equitable reforms of the financial system, among them a transparent and universal process to resolve debt crises. In the words of the campaign, foreign debt is also climate debt. Caritas explicitly invites people, groups, schools, congregations and organizations of every faith to join, and national Caritas organizations and partners run parallel campaigns, such as the Campagna Cambiare la rotta in Italy and the work of Caritas Europa.

For Religious Congregations, Turn Debt into Hope offers a ready and credible way to turn the Jubilee into action: signing the petition as an Institute, sharing it in schools, parishes and ministries, linking it with local Caritas and Jubilee networks, and following the international processes (G20, UN debt discussions) on which its advocacy focuses. The Jubilee year ended on 6 January 2026, so it is worth checking the current phase of the campaign and its next actions at turndebtintohope.caritas.org.

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