Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – In a message sent today to the Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Mr. Jacques Diouf, on the occasion of World Food Day 2010, celebrated today, the Holy Father Benedict XVI said that the theme for this year - “United Against Hunger” - calls us all to work to give the agricultural sector the importance it deserves. “Everyone – from individuals to the organizations of civil society, States and international institutions – needs to give priority to one of the most urgent goals for the human family: freedom from hunger,” writes the Pope, who showed that this does not only imply the availability of a sufficient quantity of food, but also that “everyone has daily access to it.”
The efforts to reach this objective will contribute to establishing unity in the human family throughout the world, the Pope says, expressing his satisfaction at the recent decision to protect the right to water, “essential to human nutrition, to rural activities and to the conservation of nature.”
He says: “If the international community is to be truly 'united' against hunger, then poverty must be overcome through authentic human development, based on the idea of the person as a unity of body, soul and spirit. Today, though, there is a tendency to limit the vision of development to one that satisfies the material needs of the person, especially through access to technology; yet authentic development is not simply a function of what a person "has", it must also embrace higher values of fraternity, solidarity and the common good.”
The Holy Father then exhorts all to keep in mind “a model of development built on fraternity,” inspired by solidarity and oriented towards the common good, which will be capable of providing correctives to the current global crisis. He tells developed countries that they “have to be aware that the world’s growing needs require consistent levels of aid from them. They cannot simply remain closed towards others: such an attitude would not help to resolve the crisis.”
In concluding the Message, Benedict XVI mentions: “In order to eliminate hunger and malnutrition, obstacles of self-interest must be overcome so as to make room for a fruitful gratuitousness, manifested in international cooperation as an expression of genuine fraternity. This does not obviate the need for justice, though, and it is important that existing rules be respected and implemented... Individuals, peoples and countries must be allowed to shape their own development, taking advantage of external assistance in accordance with priorities and concepts rooted in their traditional techniques, in their culture, in their religious patrimony and in the wisdom passed on from generation to generation within the family.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 15/10/2010)
