Vatican City, Jul 15, 2009 / 09:06 am
Two days after Pope Benedict XVI released his new social encyclical, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi spoke to the U.N.'s Economic and Social Council about the need to increase efforts worldwide to help the poor and hungry in the face of the financial crisis and the H1N1 pandemic. This response should involve a "new model of global development centered on the human person rather than profit," he said.
Archbishop Tomasi began his address to the High-Level Segment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) by describing the perfect storm of global events that threatens to trap "an additional 53 to 65 million people in extreme poverty" in 2009.
The Holy See's permanent observer in Geneva said, "the financial and economic crisis that greed and lack of ethical responsibility have brought about" has been further exacerbated by the influenza virus A-H1N1.