VATICAN CITY, Rome — Just nine days before Christmas, Pope Francis is urging wealthier nations to recognize their own 'ecological debt' due to the exploitation of resources, the destruction of ecosystems and the effects of climate change.

For the coming Jubilee Year 2025, the pope admonished that "the more prosperous countries ought to feel called to do everything possible to forget and forgive the debts of those countries that are in no condition to repay the amount they owe."

He rationalized that his proposal is "capable of restoring dignity to the lives of entire peoples and enabling them to set out anew on the journey of hope."

This first proposal, he stated, is renewing the appeal launched by St. John Paul II for the Holy Year 2000 to consider "reducing substantially, if not canceling outright, the international debt which seriously threatens the future of many nations."

"Foreign debt has become a means of control whereby certain governments and private financial institutions of the richer countries unscrupulously and indiscriminately exploit the human and natural resources of poorer countries, simply to satisfy the demands of their own markets," Francis pointed out.

"A new financial framework must be devised, leading to the creation of a global financial charter based on solidarity and harmony between peoples," he added while asserting that debt forgiveness is not just "an isolated act of charity that simply reboots the vicious cycle of financing and indebtedness."

In a second appeal, the pontiff asked for "a firm commitment" to respecting "the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person can cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to a future of prosperity and happiness for themselves and for their children."

"Without hope for the future, it becomes hard for the young to look forward to bringing new lives into the world and a concrete gesture that can help foster the culture of life is the elimination of the death penalty in all nations," he reiterated from an earlier pronouncement.

The pope's third and final call follows in the footsteps of St. Paul VI and Benedict XVI which underscored that "in this time marked by wars, at least a fixed percentage of the money earmarked for armaments should be used to establish a global fund."

"The fund should finance initiatives to eradicate hunger and facilitate educational activities in poor countries to promote sustainable development and combat climate change. We need to work at eliminating every pretext that encourages young people to regard their future as hopeless or dominated by the thirst to avenge the blood of their dear ones," Francis concluded.