The specter of genocide and ethnic violence has become sadly familiar in Central America, especially in Guatemala. More than 80 percent of the world's people live in developing countries. They use just 20 percent of the world's wealth. The remaining 20 percent of the world's people live in industrialized nations and control 80 percent of the world's wealth. The United States ranks first in the world in weapons sold to poor nations, yet near last among industrialized nations in the proportion of resources devoted to development for the poor.
Foreign debt crushes hopes and paralyzes progress in too many poor nations.
Forests, rivers and animal species are being destroyed by environmental neglect and devastation. Some nations and nongovernmental organizations resort to attacks on human life, including coerced abortion and sterilization. Military budgets of many nations take away money for health care, nutrition, housing and education. The gulf between rich and poor nations has widened, and the sense of responsibility toward the world's poor and oppressed has grown weaker. During the course of the next year, I have asked Father Broderick to form a diocesan accompaniment committee, to locate possible sites and partners in Latin America, to meet with parishes or schools interested in partnership projects, and to develop a coordinated plan to link participant parishes, schools and diocesan departments and agencies with counterparts in participating sister dioceses.