Presentation of Document on World Hunger

V.I.S. - Thursday 24 October 1996

VATICAN CITY, OCT 24, 1996 (VIS) - Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum", presented this morning in the Holy See Press Office the document "World Hunger. A Challenge for All: Development for Solidarity" which, he said, "is situated on the horizon of the preparations for the Year of Charity 1999."

Archbishop Cordes said that the intention of the document is to correct the passivity of some people who think that nothing can be done about the problem of hunger. And he noted that "according to the Human Development Report of 1993, every day 34,000 children die of hunger. The solution to this scandal cannot be delegated further to others, but rather a challenge must be made of it for you and me."

"Facing the drama of hunger and of death by hunger with the Gospel in mind radicalizes the issue because ... everyone, in the end, asks himself why God, who is good, allows people to starve to death." He added that "the margin of our freedom necessarily implies the risk of evil. Those who accuse God of this evil are mistaken. They must remember that the history of salvation worked by God in Christ ... sees God identify himself with the sin and poverty of men. In this way He frees humanity from all evil."

Msgr. Ivan Marin, secretary of the council, said that the document "comes out three weeks before the World Food Summit, which will gather the world's heads of state in Rome. It hopes to make a positive contribution in affirming that it is certainly possible to win the war against hunger and to extend an invitation not to believe in fate as the cause of poverty and hunger."

Jean-Loup Dherse, an expert, spoke next. The central problem of hunger, he said, "is not the physical scarcity of food (except in very limited and transitory cases), but a lack of resources. Hunger is born of poverty. ... The lack of resources is due to existing deficiencies at various levels, each of which corresponds to possible improvements, recognizing that no particular progress or measure will ever be enough."

He added that "the exclusive quest for personal material goods, for power as a prerogative, and for reputation for its own sake, destroy the common good and cost the planet dearly. This is a hint for reflection that touches a nexus of capital importance between the behavior of people on the one hand and world economic structure on the other."

"In a world marked by very technocratic processes, the poor person, from the economic point of view, is not listened to. ... The reversal of idolatrous behaviors, which corrode the common good, can give birth to surprising material and human progress capable of contributing considerably to an increase in the well-being of the most defenseless populations."