VATICAN CITY (RNS) — In 2000, then-Pope John Paul II appealed to the leaders of rich nations to forget the debt of poorer countries, in the spirit of jubilee year of the Catholic Church – a time that the Church sets aside for forgiveness of sins and debts. Meeting the prisoners in Rome, John Paul II called for the death penalty, which he called “an unworthy punishment still used in certain countries, to be abolished throughout the world.”

Twenty-five years later, the Church prepares to celebrate another jubilee in 2025, but the goals set by John Paul II continue to seem as distant as ever: nearly 30,000 people are currently on death row. worldwide and, according to the International Monetary Fund, at least half developing countries are facing or on the verge of a debt crisis.

Ahead of the World Day of Peace on January 1, Pope Francis renewed John Paul II’s calls earlier this month for the cancellation of foreign debt, the elimination of the death penalty and the creation of a fund aimed at eradicating world hunger by using money allocated to armaments.

“I urge the international community to work towards the cancellation of the external debt, in recognition of the ecological debt existing between the North and the South of this world,” Pope Francis wrote in a December 8 press release. “It is a call for solidarity, but above all for justice.”

The pope said the death penalty “not only compromises the inviolability of life, but eliminates all human hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation.” He said a global fund fueled by money currently allocated to arms could “eradicate hunger and facilitate educational activities in the poorest countries to promote sustainable development and combat climate change.”

Francis has often drawn attention to weapons manufacturers as the prime example of an industry that values ​​profit over human lives. The global arms trade was worth around $138 billion in 2022, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Jubilee years, modeled on an ancient Jewish custom, were introduced into the Church in 1300 by Pope Boniface VIII and today occur every quarter of a century. The 2025 celebration, which officially begins on Christmas Eve 2024, is expected to attract more than 30 million pilgrims to the Vatican seeking spiritual renewal or forgiveness of sins.

FILE – Cardinal Michael Czerny meets with journalists at the Vatican press room, in Rome, March 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

The pope’s appeal, titled “Forgive us our trespasses: grant us peace,” is addressed particularly to those who have no hope for the future. “We must work to eliminate any pretext that encourages young people to view their future as hopeless or dominated by the thirst to avenge the blood of their loved ones,” Francis said.

Speaking at a Vatican press conference introducing the pope’s message Thursday (Dec. 12), Cardinal Michael Czerny, who heads the Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development, said he hoped people would listen to the message of Francis aimed at “disarming our hearts”.

In the pope’s message, he said the abolition of international debt would require the creation of a global financial charter based on justice and fraternity. Czerny acknowledged that with a growing share of debt in private hands, the issue is more complex today than it was 25 years ago.

Francis has repeatedly spoken out against the death penalty, including during his Sunday prayers in St. Peter’s Square on Dec. 8, when he addressed his appeal to the United States. “I feel obliged to ask all of you to pray for inmates on death row in the United States,” the pope said. “Let us pray that their sentences will be commuted or modified. »

This Oct. 9, 2014, file photo shows the gurney in the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

The Catholic Mobilizing Network, which works for fairness in the U.S. legal and justice systems, has called on President Joe Biden, a Catholic, to commute the sentences of 40 federal death row inmates before his term ends in January.

“Pope Francis calls for our firm commitment to respecting the dignity of human life, namely the elimination of the death penalty in all nations,” Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, the group’s executive director, said at the news conference. presentation of the Pope’s message. She described capital punishment as a “structural sin” in force in 55 countries. In the United States, 27 of the 50 states still have the death penalty.

Vaillancourt Murphy said accepting the pope’s call would amount to “an act of profound hope in our time.”

Also present at the press conference was Vito Alfieri Fontana, who ran a company manufacturing landmines before changing his career personally in the mid-1990s and joining the global fight against the arms trade and in particular against landmines. “Those who work in the arms industry strive to provide their customers with rapid and effective solutions in the event of war,” Fontana said. “Instead, wars quickly drown in the mud of the trenches and last for years. Perhaps therein lies the trick: maintaining an endless supply and multiplying sales, lest “the front collapse.”

Fontana, who spent decades removing landmines from his former company in the former Yugoslavia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, criticized the decision to introduce landmines in the Middle East and Ukraine. In November, the United States authorized the supply of antipersonnel landmines to Ukraine.

“It’s an unnecessary and stupid homicide, a weapon of revenge,” Fontana said. “We will remove everyone they place,” he said, adding that “the important thing is to end this damn war!”