Pope Francis, on Wednesday, advocated debt forgiveness for poor countries to enable the internationally indebted nations to come out of the woods and develop.

He made the call in his 2025 World Day of Peace message, annually marked on January 1, to encourage peace worldwide.

The theme of the global event for 2025 is ‘Forgive Us Our Trespasses, Grant Us Your Peace’.

The Pope’s message was read by the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most. Rev. Alfred Martins, during Mass to commemorate the day. The event was marked at the Holy Cross Catholic Cathedral, Lagos, to promote peaceful co-existence.

“God does not weigh up the evils we commit. Rather, He is immensely rich in mercy, for the great love with which He loved us (Eph 2:4). That yet He also hears the plea of the poor and the cry of the earth.

“What the world will do is simply to stop for a moment, at the beginning of 2025, to think of the mercy with which He constantly forgives our sins and forgives our every debt so that our hearts may overflow with hope and peace,” said the Pope.

The leader of the Vatican added, “In teaching us to pray the ‘Our Father’, Jesus started by asking the Father to forgive our trespasses, but passes immediately to the challenging words, ‘as we forgive those who trespass against us (cf. Mt 6:12).

“In order to forgive others their trespasses and to offer them hope, we need to be filled with that same hope, the fruits of our experiences of God’s mercies.”

According to him, hope overflows in generosity, and it is free of calculation, making no hidden demands to raise those who have fallen, healing broken hearts and setting free those in bondage.

He said, “At the beginning of this Year of Grace, I will like to offer three proposals capable of restoring dignity to lives enable people to set out anew on the journey of hope.

“In this way, the debt crisis can be overcome and all of us can once more realise that we are debtors whose debts have been forgiven.”

He renewed the appeal launched by Saint John Paul II on the occasion of the Great Jubilee of the year 2000 to consider reducing substantially, if not cancelling outright, the international debt which threatens the future of many nations.

He appealed to more prosperous countries to forgive the debts of those nations that cannot repay the amount they owe.

He suggested that a new financial framework must be devised to create a global charter based on solidarity and harmony between peoples.

(NAN)