Pope Leo has made an urgent appeal to world leaders to end global hunger, describing the failure to feed millions as an “ethical derailment” and a “historic offence”. Speaking at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome, the pontiff condemned the use of food as a weapon of war, though he did not name specific conflicts or countries.
Citing UN data showing that around 673 million people go without adequate food each day, Pope Leo called this a sign of “prevailing insensitivity, a soulless economy, and an unjust and unsustainable system of resource distribution”. He added: “In a time when science has lengthened life expectancy, allowing millions to live – and die – struck by hunger is a collective failure.”
The pope, the first from the United States, spent much of his earlier career as a missionary in Peru and has prioritised care for the poor during his five-month tenure. He addressed 125 delegations at a weeklong forum marking the FAO’s 80th anniversary.
Speaking mainly in Spanish, Pope Leo noted that modern conflicts have seen the re-emergence of food as a weapon, in violation of international humanitarian law. “This seems forgotten, for we witness the continued use of that cruel strategy. We cannot continue like this, since hunger is not humanity’s destiny but its downfall,” he said.
