Jubilee

 

Celebrated by the Church every 25 years, a Jubilee year is a Holy year of grace and mercy. It is a time for reconciliation and renewal—a moment to reconnect with each other and with God. 

 

 

Pope Francis has declared 2025 as a Jubilee Year centered on the theme of "Pilgrims of Hope," inviting the faithful to return to a "climate of hope and trust.” Just as the biblical Jubilee was a time for restoring justice and fairness—when debts were forgiven, lands returned to original owners, fields laid fallow—Pope Francis has urged richer nations to forgive the debts of countries that will never be able to repay them.  

Rooted in the same biblical principles of economic justice and solidarity, taking action to address unsustainable and unjust debt will help heal the inequalities that trap nations in cycles of poverty, enabling them to pursue sustainable development and a future of dignity for all. 

Many developing countries—including those where CRS works—are saddled with such high levels of debt that they are unable to invest in critical areas such as education, and healthcare. The 2008 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the debt burdens of the lowest-income countries, which now amount to $1.1 trillion. 

In 2024, the World Bank estimates that:  

• 36% of Zambia’s government spending went toward servicing external debt.   

• 22% of Kenya’s government spending went toward servicing external debt. 

• 19% of Ghana’s government spending went toward servicing external debt. 

Most of Africa's debt is held by private creditors and multilateral institutions, with a significant but smaller share held by bilateral creditors, especially China. Because creditors are mostly private entities rather than other governments, debtor countries have fewer protections against unfair lending and no effective recourse to negotiate sustainable debt restructuring.  

 JUBILEE: AN INVITATION TO ADVOCATE FOR DEBT RELIEF 

The Jubilee year is not just a year of celebration. For CRS, it is an important moment to renew the spirit of justice and compassion in our fight to promote the dignity of all people. The debt crisis is an obstacle to the Catholic ideal of integral human development, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of our global family and the multidimensional needs of individuals. Countries that allocate a significant portion of their revenue to servicing external debt are caught in a cycle of economic stagnation and inequality. Alleviating unjust debt enables them to lead their own development, while also empowering traditional donors to build on those gains for increased impact.  

We welcome the spirit of Jubilee and invite U.S. leadership to join us in promoting debt relief so that developing countries can build a sustainable and equitable future. Together, we can fan the flame of hope. 

• Debt Restructuring: In the short term, countries must have the ability to restructure unjust debt to ensure sustainability and avoid further economic distress. 

• Debt Relief and Reform: Debt relief should go hand in hand with reforms to the global debt architecture.   

• U.S. Advocacy: The U.S. can play a key role by advocating for reforms in the international debt system, such as better coordination between creditors, quicker debt restructuring processes, and the creation of new mechanisms for managing sovereign debt.