Over one thousand people from across the country gathered at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, CA October 27-28, 2006 to discuss ways to reduce global poverty at a national conference sponsored by several major Catholic organizations. The University of San Francisco was a lead organizer along with the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Catholic Relief Services, the US Bishops’ Conference and several Catholic health care organizations. Several Jesuit organizations partnered with the conference including John Carroll, Santa Clara, Regis, Georgetown, LMU, the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU), the Jesuit Conference, Woodstock Theological Center, the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection, Jesuit Refugee Services, Jesuit Volunteer Corps: Southwest, the Center of Concern and the Ignatian Solidarity Network.

The conference titled “Point 7 Now! Mobilizing American Catholic Faithful to End Global Poverty” focused on the UN Millennium Development Goals that seek to end extreme poverty, or, as keynote speaker Jeffrey Sachs explained, the poverty that kills. The phrase Point 7 Now! refers to the commitment made by developed countries to increase foreign aid to poor countries to .7% of a developed country’s national income (US foreign aid is at .2% now). At the same time, poor developing countries promised reforms to improve transparency, democracy and anti-corruption efforts to ensure that increased foreign aid would reduce poverty.

In addition to featuring spectacular speakers representing a wide range of issues such as Sunitha Krishnan of Prajwala on human trafficking, Charity Musamba of Zambia on debt, Peter Kimeu of CRS, Cardinal Renato Martino of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, David O’Brien of Holy Cross College and Margaret O’Brien Steinfels of Fordham, the conference encouraged participants to develop strategies for promoting the Catholic Campaign Against Global Poverty. This campaign, sponsored jointly by CRS and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, is a multi-year advocacy effort to increase and improve US foreign aid, reduce and cancel the debt of poor countries, and promote just trade policies.

As San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer said in a recent article, “Ending global poverty is one of the great challenges of our time that requires urgent political will and solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the world.” You can learn more about the Catholic Campaign Against Global Poverty online at www.usccb.org/globalpoverty . For more information on the UN Millennium Development Goals, visit www.millenniumcampaign.org .