Send this news story to a friend
Pope Says Access to Food Is Part of Right to Life : 5th Nov 09
Ensuring that people have access to food is protecting their right to life, Pope Benedict XVI wrote in a message marking World Food Day. The Holy Father said this in a recent letter to Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the UN’s Rome-based Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). World Food Day, observed every year on October 16, commemorates the anniversary of the FAO’s founding in 1945. This year’s theme is “Achieving Food Security in Times of Crisis””
The Pontiff began by noting “the urgency and need to intervene in favour of all those who are deprived of daily bread in so many countries, due to the lack of adequate conditions of food security”. He called the present global economic crisis, which affects the food security of the poorest nations, a “dramatic” situation.
“To guarantee persons and nations the possibility of overcoming the plague of hunger means to ensure their concrete access to healthy and adequate nourishment,” the Vicar of Christ affirmed. “It is, in fact, a concrete manifestation of the right to life, which, though solemnly proclaimed, often continues to be far from full realization”.
Benedict XVI recalled that a project to improve food availability has less to do with “privileges, profits and comfort” than with “men, women, families and communities, which live in the poorest areas of the planet and which are, moreover, more vulnerable”. “Access to food is a fundamental right of persons and nations”, he stated. Zenit. October 16.
Recent Topics
- Seán Dublin Bay Loftus, Veteran Pro-Lifer Dies
- Irish Senator Critical of EU Funding for Gay Adoption Conference
- Ray Gosling Charged With Wasting Police Time in ‘Mercy Killing’ Case
- ‘Dr Death’ Wants Assisted Suicide for All
- Bogus Claims of “Thousands” of Poles Travelling for Abortion
- Chilean Bishop Urges Defence of Life to End Culture of Death
- A Pint of Beer and an Abortion?
- Catholic Teaching on the Family “Makes Sense”: Probation Expert
- Mass For Grandparents Held in Westport
- Boots Puts Profit Before Women And Children’s Health
- Adult Stem Cell Researchers May have Found Baldness Cure