Last December Pope Francis launched an appeal to support the Caritas Internationalis campaign to end hunger. "We are in front of a
global scandal of around one billion – one billion people who still
suffer from hunger today."
As I shared in the past, Caritas is one of the 200 countries in the world where Caritas is present (Caritas Swaziland) and supports this campaign through "food security" projects.
Yesterday a video with a very familiar story was launched by Caritas Internationalis:
Message from Pope Francis for the launch of One Human Family, Food for All
Dear brothers and dear sisters,
Today,
I am happy to announce to you the launch of a campaign against global
hunger by our very own Caritas Internationalis and to tell you that I
intend to give my full support. This confederation, together with its
164 member organisations works in 200 countries and territories around
the world and its work is at the heart of the mission of the Church and
of Her attention towards all those who suffer because of the scandal of
hunger, those with whom the Lord identified when he said, “I was hungry
and you gave me something to eat”.
When the Apostles said to Jesus
that the people who had come to listen to his words were hungry, He
invited them to go and look for food. Being poor themselves, all they
found were five loaves and two fish. But with the grace of God, they
managed to feed a multitude of people, even managing to collect what was
left over and avoiding that it went to waste.
We are in front of a
global scandal of around one billion – one billion people who still
suffer from hunger today. We cannot look the other way and pretend this
does not exist. The food available in the world is enough to feed
everyone. The parable of the multiplication of the loaves and fish
teaches us exactly this: that if there is the will, what we have never
ends. On the contrary, it abounds and does not get wasted.
Therefore,
dear brothers and sisters, I invite you to make space in your heart for
this emergency of respecting the God-given rights of everyone to have
access to adequate food. We share what we have in Christian charity with
those who face numerous obstacles to satisfy such a basic need. At the
same time we promote an authentic cooperation with the poor so that
through the fruits of their and our work they can live a dignified life.
I
invite all of the institutions of the world, the Church, each of us, as
one single human family, to give a voice to all of those who suffer
silently from hunger, so that this voice becomes a roar which can shake
the world.
This campaign is also an invitation to all of us to become
more conscious in our food choices, which often lead to waste and a
poor use of the resources available to us. It is also a reminder to stop
thinking that our daily actions do not have an impact on the lives of
those who suffer from hunger first-hand.
I ask you from the bottom of
my heart to support our Caritas organisations in this noble campaign
where they will act as one human family to ensure food for all.Let us
pray that the Lord gives us the grace to envisage a world in which no
one must ever again die of hunger. And asking for this grace, I give you
my blessing.