Hunger Is a Threat to Peace, Pope Says

VATICAN, Jun 10, 02 (CWNews.com) — In a message to participants in the World Food Summit, which opens today in Rome, Pope John Paul II said that “poverty and hunger constitute a concrete threat to peace and international security.” The Pope expressed his support for the conference, which is organized by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). And he expressed satisfaction that so many international leaders will be involved in this week’s discussions.

However, the Pope observed with regret that the goal set at a similar FAO summit meeting in 1996– to reduce the number of people lacking adequate nutrition by one-half– had not been met. This failure, he said, shows “the absence of a culture of solidarity,” as well as “international relations often shaped by a pragmatism devoid of ethical and moral foundations.” The Pope lamented that international aid to poor countries “appears to have decreased rather than increased.”

The Pope welcomed the recognition that “hunger and malnutrition are not only natural phenomena,” but the results of complex problems that include poverty, a lack of education, unequal access to capital, and political corruption. He urged participants in the FAO conference to renew their dedication to reducing world hunger, suggesting a new resolution to adopt that goal of reducing “reducing by half, by the year 2015, the number of people in the world who are undernourished and deprived of the bare necessities of life.”

The Pope’s message was delivered by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican Secretary of State, who is leading a large delegation from the Holy See to the FAO conference. There are 182 nations represented in Rome for this week’s meeting.