Pope Leo XIV on Thursday urged global leaders to act responsibly and not turn a blind eye to the growing crisis of world hunger.
The pontiff delivered his message during the World Food Day global ceremony, which also celebrated the 80th anniversary of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at its headquarters in Rome.Citing UN statistics, Leo highlighted that about 673 million people go hungry every single day.
In his speech, the pope directly mentioned the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as ongoing turmoil in Haiti, Afghanistan, Mali, the Central African Republic, Yemen, and South Sudan.
He also denounced the use of hunger as a weapon of war, though he refrained from pointing fingers at any particular nation or conflict. “We can no longer fool ourselves into thinking that the consequences of our failures only affect those far from our sight,” he said. “The starving faces of so many who continue to suffer challenge us to rethink our lifestyles, our priorities, and the way we live in today’s world.”
Concluding his remarks in English, after speaking mainly in Spanish, Leo declared, “We must make their suffering our own.”
The pope had issued a similar appeal last week in his first encyclical, where he warned against indifference to global poverty and hunger.
His latest plea comes at a time when UN food relief agencies are facing major funding cuts from key donor nations, a setback that threatens to disrupt crucial humanitarian operations in hunger-stricken regions.
