Pubblichiamo di seguito il Messaggio che il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI ha inviato, tramite il Card. Angelo Sodano, Segretario di Stato, all’Arcivescovo di Saint Andrews and Edinburgh, Em.mo Card. Keith Patrick O’Brien, in occasione del Make Poverty History rally che si svolge ad Edimburgo, prima del Vertice del G8:

His Eminence

Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien

Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh

The Holy Father was pleased to be informed of the Make Poverty History rally beginning on Saturday 2 July in Edinburgh in preparation for the G8 summit. He sends greetings to all who are gathered for this event, united by their concern for the welfare of millions of our brothers and sisters afflicted by extreme poverty. As the Second Vatican Council teaches, "God intended the earth and all it contains for the use of everyone and of all peoples; so that the good things of creation should be available equally to all" (Gaudium et Spes, 69). For this reason, people from the world’s richest countries should be prepared to accept the burden of debt reduction for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, and should urge their leaders to fulfil the pledges made to reduce world poverty, especially in Africa, by the year 2015. His Holiness prays for the participants in the rally and for the world leaders soon to gather at Gleneagles, that they may all play their part in ensuring a more just distribution of the world’s goods. In the ardent hope that the scourge of global poverty may one day be consigned to history, he cordially imparts his Apostolic Blessing.

CARDINAL ANGELO SODANO

SECRETARY OF STATE.

[00841-02.02] [Original text: English]

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