Vatican
City, 16 October 2013 (VIS) – The Holy Father has written a message
to Jose Graziano de Silva, director general of the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on the occasion of World Food
Day, celebrated every year on October 16 to mark the foundation of
the FAO, and which this year focuses on the theme: “Sustainable
Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition”.
“Paradoxically,
in a moment in which globalisation allows us to be informed of
situations of need throughout the world, and to multiply exchanges
and human relations, there appears to be a growing tendency towards
individualism and inwardness, which leads to a certain attitude of
indifference – at a personal, institutional and State level –
towards those who die of hunger and suffer as a result of
malnutrition, as if it were an inescapable fact”, writes the Pope.
“But hunger and malnutrition can never be considered a fact of
life, to which we must accustom ourselves, almost as if it were 'part
of the system'. Something must change in us, in ourselves, in our
mentality, in our societies”.
For
these changes to be made, Pope Francis adds that “an important step
is to break down decisively the barriers of individualism, of being
wrapped up in ourselves, of slavery to profit at all costs, and this
applies not only to the dynamics of human relations, but also in the
global economic and financial dynamics”.
He
continues, “I think that it is necessary, today more than ever, for
us to educate ourselves in solidarity, rediscovering the value and
meaning of this uncomfortable word which is so often set aside, and
to turn it into the attitude that forms the basis of decisions made
at a political, economic and financial level, and of relations
between people, populations and nations”.
Although
steps have been taken, “we are still far from a world in which
everyone may live in a dignified way”, he writes. “This leads to
serious questions on the need to modify our lifestyles in a concrete
way”, including our approaches to food which, “in many areas of
the planet, are marked by consumerism, waste and squander. … It
would be sufficient to eliminate such waste to drastically reduce the
number of people who go hungry”.
Pope
Francis introduces a third element for consideration: “education in
solidarity and a lifestyle that rejects the 'throwaway culture', and
which truly places each person and his or her dignity in the centre,
begins in the family”. He concludes by emphasising that “the
Catholic Church walks this path with you, aware that charity and love
are the soul of her mission”.
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