Advocating the Catholic responsibility to Debt Relief in the Jubilee Year was the focus of a presentation given by Father Tom McDermott and Elizeus Rutebemberwa Tuesday.

There is a crippling financial burden that is bearing on the poorest countries of the world, according to McDermott.

"It's sad to think that people are forced into a situation where they must choose between putting money aside for basic health care and education and repaying their debts," he said.

When a country borrows money, the citizens are not always aware and even when they know about the loans that their country has taken, they do not always know what the money is used for, explained Rutebemberwa, a Ugandan. Debt repayments take money away from health care and education. The problem builds as funding for these payments often comes in the form of aid from other countries, he said.

"If you get a loan, you must pay it back," Rutebemberwa said. "So why then do we have this debt relief?"

For third-world countries like Uganda, the reality is that their debt will probably never be paid. Instead of paying back the countries they owe, the money should go to the poor for education and health, Rutebemberwa said.

"It's important for us to raise our conscious to the reality of the debt in the third-world countries," said theology professor Father Bob Pelton after Tuesday's lecture. "We must bring pressure to alleviate that situation."

Rutebemberwa said that people from his country were not afraid of first-world nations because of their money, but rather because of their power.

"We don't blame rich countries because they are rich," he said, when asked how the people of Uganda feel about the disparity of wealth. "What we want is that we [do] not become slaves."

McDermott, who has spent many years in Uganda, is reminded of how much wealth there is in the American culture, of how much Americans live as influential people, and of how much education is power to us.

"We live in such a culture that makes us people who are used to choice, who are used to power, who are used to wealth – we expect that life can and will improve," he said. "We live in a life of hope."

"Calling Students to Jubilee Debt Relief at Notre Dame" was sponsored by the Notre Dame Center for Social Concerns and Campus Ministry, Saint Mary's College and Holy Cross College.

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