CAFOD parish representative in Launceston, John Ashdown, has shared his account of a recent mass lobby of parliament on the CAFOD campaign to cancel the debt of impoverished countries. A mass lobby is an event where lots of people meet with their MPs on the same day to have conversations about issues we all care about.
Supporters of more than 100 organisations from across the UK went to Westminster to ask MPs to take action on climate, debt and nature. Climate and debt is two of the six social action themes of the Jubilee year.
John writes “On an extremely hot day in Westminster, I joined 5000 others at a Mass Lobby of Parliament. This was a unique opportunity for Catholics across the country to ask MPs to urgently take action to tackle the intertwined crises of unjust debt and climate change. Today, 1 in 4 countries globally are in debt crisis, spending more on debt repayment than health, education, policing and their environment. At the same time, we are witnessing the impacts of the climate crisis through an escalating number of devastating droughts, floods and hurricanes in all parts of our world. Throughout the afternoon, as a CAFOD representative, I had a meeting with Wes Powell who was representing our North Cornwall MP, Ben Maguire. He took on board the concerns raised and agreed to represent our views with Ben.
It was a worthwhile meeting and I came away feeling confident that our views would be taken on board and raise in Parliament.”
CAFOD Cancel the Debt petition: You can find out more about this CAFOD campaign here