Jesuit Magazine Endorses U.N. Development Goals

In two recent editorials, the Jesuit magazine America strongly endorsed the U.N.'s Millenium Development Goals (MDG's. The magazine's editorials came before and after the U.N. Summit in New York on Sept. 15-17. In its September 12 editorial before the summit, America called on the U.S. and other nations to take the MDGs seriously. "Huge challenges are involved, and yet [Secretary General Kofi Annan] and others, like Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, are convinced that the essence of the goals can still be met by 2015," said America. In its October 3 editorial, the magazine criticized the lukewarm support for the MDGs on the part of U.S. President George W. Bush's administration: Just as, in the past, U.S. leadership had a multiplier effect in stimulating development assistance from other countries, the weakness of its current commitment threatens to undercut the millennial antipoverty campaign.