Vatican City, Jun 3, 2008 / 09:02 am
On Tuesday morning in Rome, 50 leaders from around the world gathered at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The heads of state listened as the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone read a message from the Pope, which stressed that the world is more than capable of providing enough food for all.
Pope Benedict XVI wrote that, "hunger and malnutrition are unacceptable in a world which has, in fact, levels of production, resources and knowledge sufficient to put an end to such dramas and their consequences.”
The solution, which the Pope said is also a challenging one, “is to 'globalize,' not just economic and commercial interests, but also the call for solidarity, while respecting and taking advantage of the contribution of all components of society."
Benedict XVI also repeated his hope that he expressed before the U.N. General Assembly in April: that of overcoming "the obvious paradox of a multilateral consensus that continues to be in crisis because it is still subordinated to the decisions of a few."