Pope Francis made an urgent call to the members of the G20, the group of world leaders from the world’s main economies such as the United States, Germany, France, China, Japan and the United Kingdom, among others, to unite in the fight against “ scandal” of hunger and poverty.
In a message addressed to Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, president of Brazil and host of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro this November 18 and 19, the Holy Father recalled what was written in his encyclical Brothers Allregarding the “scandal” of hunger and food waste that could be allocated to the poorest.
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in the text read in Rio by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Vatican, the Pope referred to various “pressures” against the international system, such as wars, terrorism and “assertive foreign policies”, in the face of which the members of the G20 They must seek “new ways to achieve stable and lasting peace in all areas related to conflicts, to restore the dignity of those affected.”
After referring to the paradox that “more than 3 billion people lack access to a nutritious diet” and that “almost 2 billion individuals are overweight or obese,” the Holy Father warned that “through usury and greed,” famine and death are caused, and one would be “committing indirectly a homicide (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2269).”
The Pontiff stressed that “no efforts must be spared to lift people out of poverty and hunger.” “It is important to keep in mind that the problem of hunger is not simply a question of food insufficiency, but rather a consequence of broader social and economic injustices,” he continued.
The Holy Father highlighted the importance of “recognizing the significant amount of food that is wasted daily.”
“Tackling food waste is a challenge that requires collective action. “In this way, resources can be redirected toward investments that help the poor and hungry meet their basic needs.”
“I am hopeful that the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty can have a significant impact on global efforts to combat hunger and poverty,” he added.
In the fight against hunger, Pope Francis indicated, “local communities and the cultural and traditional wealth of people cannot be despised or destroyed in the name of a narrow and myopic concept of progress.”
“Doing so would be, in reality, running the risk of becoming synonymous with ‘ideological colonization,’” he said.
In the final part of the speech, Pope Francis recalled that “the Holy See will continue to promote human dignity and make its specific contribution to the common good, offering the experience and commitment of Catholic institutions around the world, so that in our world “No human being, as a person loved by God, is deprived of daily bread.”
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.