HOLY FATHER ADDRESSES UN WORLD FOOD SUMMIT IN ROME

VATICAN CITY, NOV 13, 1996 (VIS) - Pope John Paul spoke this morning in Rome to the delegations of the 194 countries participating in the four-day World Food Summit, organized by the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization, and encouraged them to persevere in their efforts to relieve hunger in the world, stressing the obligations of rich countries towards poorer ones.

The Pope arrived shortly before the 9:30 a.m. opening ceremony and was greeted by Jacques Diouf, FAO director general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, UN secretary-general, Romano Prodi, president of the Council of Ministers of Italy and Queen Noor Al Hussein of Jordan.

Citing FAO analyses, he recalled that there are "more than 800 million persons who still suffer from malnutrition. ... We must seek solutions together, so that there will no longer be, side by side, persons who are starving and others who live in opulence, very poor persons and very rich ones, persons who lack necessities and others who waste excessively. Such contrasts between poverty and wealth are unbearable for mankind."

What is needed, said the Holy Father, is "the firm and persevering determination to work for the common good," as well as a change "in mentalities and habits concerning lifestyles and relations with resources and goods. ... Nothing will change ... (unless) economic and food policies are founded not only on profit but also on sharing in solidarity."

"One must renounce," affirmed John Paul II, "the sophism which says that 'being numerous means being condemned to be poor.' ... Man can modify situations and respond to growing needs. ... A numerous population can be seen as a source of development because it implies exchanges and a demand for goods. That does not mean, evidently, that demographic growth can be unlimited. ... But it would be illusory to believe that an arbitrary stabilization of the world population, or even its reduction, could directly resolve the problem of hunger."

The Pope indicated that conflicts, the suffocating weight of debt, refugees forced to leave their homelands and "populations who are victims of embargoes imposed without sufficient discernment" are among the leading causes of hunger in the world.

He then compared what is invested "in the agricultural and food sector" to "the sums used for arms and superfluous expenses habitually practiced in the most developed countries." He stressed that choices must be made "to free important means so as to guarantee the majority of countries food security, a factor in peace."

The Holy Father observed that "the propositions contained in the Plan of Action aim at assuring ... a just sharing of productive property, the promotion of associative or cooperative agricultural activity, as well as protection of market access, benefitting country populations. ... All that would certainly be insufficient if efforts in the service of educating persons to justice, to solidarity and to the love of every man, who is a brother, were not added."

John Paul II recalled that in his 1994 Apostolic Letter "Tertio Millennio Adveniente," he had suggested "concrete initiatives of international solidarity" in preparing for the Year 2000. He repeated one such initiative, that regarding the "reducing substantially, if not cancelling outright the international debt which seriously threatens the future of many nations."

In conclusion, the Pope said that "good will and generous policies must stimulate man's inventiveness" in order "to favor a more equitable sharing of food resources which, thanks to God and man's work, are not lacking today nor will they be lacking tomorrow."
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