Benedict XVI's concern over
the tragedy of hunger in the world
by Mario Ponzi
Translated from
the 10/14/09 issue of
Benedict XVI will open the World Summit on Food Security at the RRome headquarters of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on November 16. It will be the fourth visit by a Pope to FAO.
Mons. Renato Volante, permanent observer of the Holy See to the FAO, spoke to this newspaper of the Pope's forthcoming intervention in teh context of the great attention that the Popes have always had for those who suffer because of hunger.
On Monday afternoon, the Director-General of FAO addressed the Synodal assembly for Africa. The following morning, the Vatican announced the Pope's attendance at the food summit. What is the significance of this decision?
The only possible one: the great attention and great concern of the Church in the face of the tragedy of hunger in the world, along with related problems of malnutrition and of food security.
With his presence at the opening of the Summit, Benedict XVI follows in the footsteps of his predecessors. As you know, FAO was established in 1945 and its headquarters was transferred to Rome in 1951.
The first visit made by a Pope to FAO was by Paul VI in 1970 on the 25th anniversary of the organization. John Paul II visited in 1979. for the 20th general conference of FAO, and then in 1992 and 1996 for the earlier summits on food security.
I repeat, this just goes to show the attention and concern which the Popes have always devoted to hunger in the modern world.
In the encylical Caritas in veritate, the Pope wrote that "to eliminate hunger in the world has become, in the era of globalization, a goal to pursue in order to safeguard peace and stability on the planet". Do you think that this message, but more generally, the entire encyclical, has been well received?
I am sure of it. I have personally experienced that every document, every action, of Benedict XVI has been welcomed with gratitude and followed with great attention. In the circles reached by my own mission, I know how much they look forward to every intervention by the Pope on matters of global relevance.
The encyclical has been read by everyone in FAO, and with particular attention, especially the paragraphs that refer to hunger in the world. Jacques Diouf, in his address to the Synodal assembly, cited the encyclical several times for his focal points.
Responding to a question from a Synodal father, Mr. Diouf belied the claim of a direct relation between the increase in hunger with the increase in population.
It certainly is a false problem. In 1996, John Paul II said clearly: "It would be an illusion to think that an arbitrary stabilization of the world population could directly resolve the problem of widespread hunger".
Yesterday, Mr. Diouf, in clear and summary form, repeated the same concept: it is nto the number of people that creates hunger in the world - it is the lack of infrastructures, of water, the gap between an opulent world that wastes food and a poor world that has none. It is the scandal of the destruction of surplus foodstuffs in the rich countries which they cannot send to the poor nations because of legal technicalities.
These are the elements which create hunger in the world, not the population. Unfortunately, one must add to these elements the lack of solidarity among peoples and the selfishness of many among us.
Diouf also referred to the importance of the convergence of the teachings of the Catholic Church and of Islam about the responsibility of the developed world towards teh poor nations, towards Africa, in particular.
The role that religions must play in calling attention to the urgency of solidarity is clear. It is certainly a responsibility that all religions must share. Especially in calling for ethical distribution of the world's riches among all men.
Therre is no ethics without justice. And the Pope takes it one step farther when he says that there can be no ethics without love, without giving oneself. When we can enter this dimension of universal love, we will make a great step forward in the battle against hunger in the world. This is the rgeat contribution that religions can make.
Do you think that the Synodal assembly on Africa answers this demand for love?
From what I could see, after taking part in the discussions yesterday, I do think it is a splendid response to it.
Just one more indication of MSM lack of attention to Vatican events that do not happen to touch on any of the buzzwords that inevitably attract them like vultures to carrion - not one of the major news agencies reported Jacques Diouf's intervention yesterday, which, by the way, can be found in a full English translation in the Synod bulletins
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/02_inglese/b21...
This story comes from LifesiteNews which reports dutifully on all matters affecting human life in all its phases.
UN food chief disputes Malthusian
overpopulation theory at African Synod:
Political/juridical reform, not population control,
will solve Africa's food problems, FAO's Diouf says
By Hilary White
ROME, October 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The head of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) told a gathering of African bishops in Rome on Monday that the theories of Thomas Malthus, equating increased population with food shortages, are incorrect.
In response to a question from the floor at the African Synod, Dr. Jacques Diouf said that "food security" is possible in Africa now without the reduction of population, if there is the political will to achieve it.
The solution to Africa's "yoke of hunger and malnutrition" is the reform of her political systems, said Diouf. "Transparency... the application of law by an independent justice" and peace will create an environment where food production and distribution can be increased, he said.
Diouf says he disputes the gloomy Malthusian economic model that predicts that worldwide famines will necessarily follow unregulated growth of the human population. Malthus, he said, "had no consideration for science and technology."
Infrastructural development, improved living conditions for farmers, irrigation, the increased use of fertilisers, building and maintenance of rural roads, availability of high-yield seed and seed quality control and certification, will bring Africa into the "Green Revolution" that has taken place in Mexico since the 1950s and Asia and India since the 1970s, said Diouf.
The UN food chief pointed out that despite the fact that 57 per cent of Africa's employment is in agriculture, in some areas only 10 per cent of government resources are allotted to food production.
Contrary to the predictions of population control advocates like Paul R. Ehrlich, the author of the book
The Population Bomb, the worldwide famines that were supposed to have occurred with the increased global population have failed to materialise.
In his book Ehrlich wrote that India "couldn't possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980." However, the introduction of high-yield grains and improved techniques resulted in India becoming self-sustaining in cereal production by 1974, six years after the publication of the book.
Dr. Diouf said that although the "political will" is not there now, if it were, "definitely" the problems of hunger and "food security" in Africa could be solved. "The land is there" he said.
Diouf's address painted a picture of hope for Africa, based on her increasing population. Citing demographic trends in his prepared address, he said that
in the next 50 years, Africa will have a population of 2 billion "and will represent the largest market in the world."
Africa, he pointed out, has 80 per cent of the world's deposits of platinum and manganese, 57 per cent of the world's diamonds, 34 per cent of gold, 23 of bauxite and 18 per cent of uranium.
This wealth of natural resources and human resources means that "Africa cannot be ignored in the economic development of the planet," he said.
"On the earth, there is a sufficient number of financial means, effective technologies, natural and human resources to eliminate hunger in the world once and for all."
The African Synod, continuing until October 24, also heard this morning of the dangers of ideologically driven models of human rights.
At this morning's session, Archbishop John Baptist Odama, head of the archdiocese of Gulu in Uganda, warned of the dangers of "certain protocols" that purport to protect the rights of women but include among these the provision of abortion.
The archbishop was referring to the Maputo Protocol, or, "The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa," a human rights declaration approved in 2003 by a group of African health ministers, that equates "reproductive health," including abortion, with the promotion of women.
Described at a press briefing as a "passionate ambassador" for peace in northern Uganda, Archbishop Odama told the bishops "we have to fight" to protect the rights of women, including access to education, but not to the point where protecting their rights infringes the rights of "other people, especially unborn children."
The point was reiterated by Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, the President of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers, who said that the underlying principle in the work of the Catholic Church in Africa in all areas, including health and education, is that "life should be respected from conception to its natural end."
Here's how CNS reported it:
UN agency head tells bishops' assembly
that fighting hunger is a matter of faith
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY, Oct. 13 (CNS) -- The teachings of the Catholic Church and of Islam urge believers to manage resources wisely, providing for the poorest and avoiding all waste and excess, the head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization told the Synod of Bishops for Africa.
Jacques Diouf, director general of the organization, was the only Muslim invited to participate in the Oct. 4-25 synod. And while his focus was on ending hunger and improving food security on the continent, he also spoke of the importance of faith in building a better world.
The growing number of people in the world who go to bed hungry is "the result of choices made on the basis of materialistic reasons to the detriment of ethical references," Diouf told the synod Oct. 12.
"This results in conditions of unjust life and an unequal world where a small number of persons becomes richer and richer, while the vast majority of the population becomes poorer and poorer," the U.N. official said.
Today's world has the financial power, the technology and the natural and human resources needed "to eliminate hunger in the world once for all," he said, but first it must overcome the power of greed, corruption and selfishness.
The United Nations is holding a world summit on food security in Rome Nov. 16-18 and the Vatican announced Oct. 13 that Pope Benedict XVI would attend the opening session.
Diouf presented several statistics to the synod:
-- "For the first time in the history of humanity, the number of hungry persons has reached 1 billion, which is 15 percent of the global population."
-- More than 270 million Africans, about 24 percent of the continent's population, are undernourished. The figure is an increase of 12 percent over a year ago.
-- Agriculture represents 11 percent of African exports, 17 percent of the continent's gross national product and 57 percent of all employment.
-- Africa is likely to number 2 billion people -- double its current population -- by 2050.
-- The lack of efficient means of transportation, storage and packaging in Africa means that 40 percent to 60 percent of the harvests of some agricultural products are lost each year.
-- Only 5 percent of development aid is dedicated globally to agricultural projects although 70 percent of the world's poor have farming as their primary means of existence.
Diouf told the synod that he agrees with a key point in Pope Benedict's encyclical, "Charity in Truth," namely that every economic decision has a moral consequence.
"The problem of food insecurity in this world is primarily a question of mobilization at the highest political levels so that the necessary financial resources are made available," he said. "It is a question of priority when facing the most fundamental human needs."
Particularly praising the work of the Catholic Church, its charities and missionaries in Africa, Diouf underlined the role of faith in battling poverty.
"A planet free from hunger is what the miracle of an unshakable faith in the omniscience of God and of the indefectible belief in humanity can lead to," he told the synod.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/10/2009 02:37]