by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Writer The Pope has sent a letter to the leaders of industrialized nations meeting in Italy this week for a G8 summit to unite in order to face the economic challenges that are currently affecting the destinies of mankind. In a letter sent via Italy’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to the participants of the G8 summit who are meeting in the earthquake-ravaged L’Aquila July 8-10, the Pope reminds world leaders of John Paul II’s conviction that freeing the poorest countries from the burden of debt and eradicating the causes of extreme poverty in the world depend on the most economically-advanced governments and States to fully assume the responsibility they bear towards all humanity.   However, despite the fact that one of the millennium goals was to eradicate extreme poverty in the world by 2015, "the financial and economic crisis that has struck the entire planet since the start of 2008 has altered the panorama, so that there is now a real risk not only that the hope of emerging from extreme poverty may be extinguished, but that people who until now benefited from some minimal material wellbeing risk falling into indigence," the Pope writes.   “With the same force as that with which John Paul II called for relief from foreign debt, I too would like to make an appeal to the G8 member States . . . that their aid for development, especially the part directed at 'evaluating' the 'human resource', may be maintained and strengthened, and not just despite the crisis but precisely because this is one of the principle ways to solve it."   He also addresses the problem of access to education. "Education is an indispensable condition for the working of democracy, for the fight against corruption, for the exercise of political, economic and social rights, and for the recovery of all States, both poor and rich,” he writes. In this context he also mentions the efforts being made in the field of education by the Catholic Church and by other religions in the "poorest and most remote corners of the globe".   He also calls for "the creation of jobs for everyone, thus enabling workers to meet the needs of their families in a dignified way, and to absolve the primary responsibility they have in educating their children and in playing an active role in the communities to which they belong.”   In addition, his letter calls for “a reform of international financial structures in order to ensure effective co-ordination of national policies, avoiding ... speculation and guaranteeing the broad international availability of public and private credit at the service of production and of work, especially in the most disadvantaged countries and regions.” The Pope encourages G8 leaders "to listen to the voice of Africa and of less economically-developed countries" and calls upon them "to seek effective ways to link the decisions made by various State groupings, including the G8, to the United Nations Assembly, where each nation, whatever its political or economic importance, can legitimately express itself in a position of equality with others."   Finally, noting how the summit meeting is to be held in a city recently affected by an earthquake, the Pope indicates that the aid L'Aquila has received "could be seen as an invitation to the members of the G8 and to governments and peoples of the world to unite to face current challenges, which require humankind to make decisive choices concerning the very destiny of man, intimately connected with that of creation." © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com