Pope Francis makes Jubilee year appeal to end hunger, debt woes and death penalty

In the year 2000, then-Pope John Paul II appealed to leaders of wealthy nations, asking them to forgive the debt of poorer countries in the spirit of the Catholic Church’s Jubilee year — a time the church sets aside for forgiveness of sins and debt. Meeting prisoners in Rome, John Paul asked that the death penalty, which he called “an unwor­thy pun­ish­ment still used in some coun­tries, be abol­ished through­out the world.”