Hunger no more! – Benedict XVI

Vatican City, Nov 22, 2007 / 08:47 am (CNA).- “The time has come to ensure, for the sake of peace, that no man, woman and child will ever be hungry again!” the Pope told members of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), gathered in Rome for their 34th general conference today. Benedict XVI decried the paradox of “the relentless spread of poverty in a world that is also experiencing unprecedented prosperity, not only in the economic sphere but also in the rapidly developing fields of science and technology.”Given the development of resources and the increase in man’s ability to grow food, “all forms of discrimination, and particularly those that thwart agricultural development, must be rejected since they constitute a violation of the basic right of every person to be ‘free from hunger,” the pontiff explained. Indeed, “these convictions are in fact demanded by the very nature of your work on behalf of the common good of humanity,” said the Pope.Such obstacles as “armed conflicts, outbreaks of disease, adverse atmospheric and environmental conditions and the massive forced displacement of peoples,” saidSource and more Catholic News Service