ZENIT in Roswell, Georgia, United States "Pope: World Hunger Mustn’t Be Accepted as ‘Natural’..." for Monday, 13 June 2016

ZENIT in Roswell, Georgia, United States "Pope: World Hunger Mustn’t Be Accepted as ‘Natural’..." for Monday, 13 June 2016
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ForwardPope: World Hunger Mustn’t Be Accepted as ‘Natural’ by Kathleen Naab

Pope Francis today made his first visit to the Rome-based United Nations organization that fights hunger, the World Food Programme, making a call in his address to recognize those who suffer from poverty and hunger as more than a statistic.
“We live in an interconnected world marked by instant communications,” the Pope reflected, noting that communication technologies, “by bringing us face to face with so many tragic situations, can help, and have helped, to mobilize responses of compassion and solidarity.”
“Paradoxically though,” he said, “this apparent closeness created by the information highway seems daily to be breaking down. […] We are bombarded by so many images that we see pain, but do not touch it; we hear weeping, but do not comfort it; we see thirst but do not satisfy it. All those human lives turn into one more news story. While the headlines may change, the pain, the hunger and the thirst remain; they do not go away.”
The Holy Father praised the role that organizations such as WFP play in this reality, saying that we “cannot be satisfied simply with being aware of the problems faced by many of our brothers and sisters. It is not enough to offer broad reflections or engage in endless discussion, constantly repeating things everyone knows. We need to ‘de-naturalize’ extreme poverty, to stop seeing it as a statistic rather than a reality. Why? Because poverty has a face! It has the face of a child; it has the face of a family; it has the face of people, young and old.”
Poverty isn’t something natural, the result of “blind fate,” with no remedy, he stated.
And if “hunger” “food” and “violence” are just concepts, the Pontiff warned, if we don’t see those suffering as real people, then “we run the risk of bureaucratizing the sufferings of others. Bureaucracies shuffle papers; compassion deals with people.”
The Pope stated that in this regard, “we have much to do.”
“In addition to everything already being done,” he said, “we need to work at ‘denaturalizing’ and ‘debureaucratizing’ the poverty and hunger of our brothers and sisters.”
There is enough
In this regard, the Pope spoke against an uninformed acceptance of food shortage, as well as the facility with which weapons are transported, while food does not reach those who need it.
“The fact that today, well into the 21st century, so many people suffer from this scourge [of food shortage] is due to a selfish and wrong distribution of resources, to the ‘merchandizing’ of food,” he said. “The earth, abused and exploited, continues in many parts of the world to yield its fruits, offering us the best of itself. The faces of the starving remind us that we have foiled its purposes. We have turned a gift with a universal destination into a privilege enjoyed by a select few. We have made the fruits of the earth – a gift to humanity – commodities for a few, thus engendering exclusion.”
The Pope particularly lamented the hunger of those in war zones and conflicts, decrying what he called a “strange paradox”:
“Whereas forms of aid and development projects are obstructed by involved and incomprehensible political decisions, skewed ideological visions and impenetrable customs barriers, weaponry is not. It makes no difference where arms come from; they circulate with brazen and virtually absolute freedom in many parts of the world. As a result, wars are fed, not persons. In some cases, hunger itself is used as a weapon of war. The death count multiplies because the number of people dying of hunger and thirst is added to that of battlefield casualties and the civilian victims of conflicts and attacks.”
The Pope noted that consciences are anesthetized and said it is “urgent to debureaucratize everything that keeps humanitarian assistance projects from being realized.”
The Holy Father as well assured the support of the Church in the fight against hunger, saying that humanity must respond to this need.
“‘I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink’. These words embody one of the axioms of Christianity. Independent of creeds and convictions, they can serve as a golden rule for our peoples,” he said. “A people plays out its future by its ability to respond to the hunger and thirst of its brothers and sisters. In that ability to come to the aid of the hungry and thirsty, we can measure the pulse of our humanity.”
—
On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full text: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-address-to-world-food-program-executive-board/
Pope Condemns ‘Homicidal Folly and Senseless Hatred’ in Orlando by ZENIT Staff

Below is the statement of Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, expressing the Pope’s condolences for the victims of the shootings this weekend at a club in Orlando, Florida, claiming 50 lives and leaving 53 wounded, marking the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history:
***
The terrible massacre that has taken place in Orlando, with its dreadfully high number of innocent victims, has caused in Pope Francis, and in all of us, the deepest feelings of horror and condemnation, of pain and turmoil before this new manifestation of homicidal folly and senseless hatred. Pope Francis joins the families of the victims and all of the injured in prayer and in compassion. Sharing in their indescribable suffering he entrusts them to the Lord so they may find comfort. We all hope that ways may be found, as soon as possible, to effectively identify and contrast the causes of such terrible and absurd violence which so deeply upsets the desire for peace of the American people and of the whole of humanity.[Original text: English] [Vatican-provided text]
Pope’s Q-and-A With Participants in Conference on Disabilities by ZENIT Staff

At noon on Saturday, Pope Francis received in audience participants in the Congress “And You Shall Eat at My Table Always!’ (2 Samuel 9:1-13),” organized by the sector for the Catechesis of Disabled Persons of the Italian National Catechetic Office, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its institution:
In the course of the meeting the Pope put aside the prepared text of the address, and answered off-the-cuff the questions addressed to him by two girls and a priest, on how to address differences without fear and how to avoid exclusion also in Christian communities.
Here is a translation of the transcription of Pope Francis’ words:
* * *
The first question was very rich, very rich, and it talked about differences. We are all different: there is not one who is the same as another. There are some differences that are greater and others that are less so, but we are all different. And you, the girl that asked the question, said: “Many times we are afraid of differences.” They make us afraid. Why? Because to encounter a person that has a difference, let’s say not strong but great, is a challenge, and every challenge makes us afraid. It’s more comfortable not to move; it’s more comfortable to ignore differences and say: “We are all the same, and if there is one who is not so the ‘same,’ let’s leave him aside, and not go to meet him.” It’s fear that every challenge causes us; every challenge is fearful, makes us afraid, renders us somewhat timid. But no! The differences are in fact the richness, because I have something, you have another, and with these two we make a more beautiful, greater thing. And so we can go forward. Let us think of a world where all are the same: it would be a boring world! It’s true that some differences are painful. We all know this, those that have roots in some sicknesses … but even those differences help us; they challenge us and enrich us. Therefore, we must never be afraid of differences: that is in fact the way to improve, to be better and richer.
And how is this done? By putting in common what we have. By putting it in common. It’s a lovely gesture that we, human persons, have; a gesture that we make almost without thinking, but it’s a very profound gesture: to shake hands, I give you what is mine, and you give me what is yours. And this is something that does everyone good. We go forward with the differences, because differences are a challenge but they make us grow. And let us think that every time I shake another’s hand, I give something of mine and I receive something from him. This also makes us grow. This is what comes to me as an answer to the first question.
I have forgotten something of the first question, but I will say it now with this <question> posed by Serena. Serena makes things difficult for me, because I say what I think … She has spoken little – three/four lines, but she has said them forcefully! Serena has spoken of one of the worst things that exist among us: discrimination. It’s a very bad thing! “You’re not like me, you go there and I go here.” “But I would like to do catechesis …” – “Not in this parish. This parish is for those that are similar, there are no differences …” Is this parish good or not? [The Hall: Nooo!] What must the parish priest do? … Be converted? It’s true that if you want to do Communion, you must have a preparation; and if you don’t understand this language, for instance if you are deaf, you must have the possibility in that parish to prepare yourself with the language of the deaf. See, this is important! If you are different, you also have the possibility of being the best; this is true. Difference does not state that one who has five senses that work well is better than one, for instance, who is deaf and unable to speak. No! This isn’t true! We all have the same possibility to grow, to go ahead, to love the Lord, to do good things, to understand Christian Doctrine, and we all have the same possibility to receive the Sacraments. Understood?
When, many years ago — one hundred years ago or more — Pope Pius X said that Communion should be given to children, many were scandalized. “But that child doesn’t understand, he is different, he doesn’t understand well …” “Give Communion to children,” said the Pope, and he made of a difference an equality, because he knew that a child understands in another way. In school also, in the neighborhood, each one has his richness, is different, it’s as if he spoke another language. He is different because he expresses himself in a different way. And this fact is a richness. What Serena said happens so many times; it happens so many times and it is one of the worst things, one of the worst things of our cities, of our life: discrimination, with offensive words, too. One cannot be discriminated against. Each one of us has a way of knowing things that is different: one known in one way, another in another way, but all can know God. [A little girl approaches the Pope] Come, come … She is courageous! Come … She isn’t afraid, she risks, she knows that differences are a richness; she risks, and she has given us a lesson. She will never be discriminated against; she knows how to defend herself on her own!
See. Serena, I don’t know if I’ve answered your question. In the parish, in the Mass, in the Sacraments, all are equal, because all have the same Lord: Jesus, and the same Mother: Our Lady. Understood? [Another little girl approaches him] Come, come … another courageous one. The Father who spoke first asked some questions that are linked to what Serena said: how to receive all. But if you … I don’t say it to you, because I know that you receive everyone– but think of a priest who doesn’t receive everyone: what advice would the Pope give? “Close the door of the church, please!” –either <you receive> everyone or no one. “But no — we think of that priest who defends himself — but no, Father, no, it’s not like that; I understand all, but I can’t receive all because not all are able to understand …” “It’s you who are not able to understand!” What the priest must do, helped by the laity, by catechists, by many, many people, is to help all to understand: to understand the faith, to understand love, to understand how to be friends, to understand differences, to understand how things are complementary, one can give one thing, and another can give another. This is to help to understand.
And you used two lovely words: receive and listen. Receive, namely to receive all, all, and to listen to all. I’ll tell you something. I think that today many good things are done in the Church’s pastoral care, many good things: in catechesis, in the liturgy, in charity, with the sick … many good things. But there is something that must be done more, also by priests, also by the laity — but priests especially must do more: the apostolate of the ear: to listen! “But, Father, it’s boring to listen, because it’s always the same stories, the same things …” “But it’s not the same persons, and the Lord is in the heart of each one of the persons, and you must have the patience to listen.” Receive and listen to all, and I believe that with this I’ve answered the questions.
I had prepared an address for you, and the Prefect [of the Papal Household] will give it so that it is known by all. Because to read an address is also somewhat boring … And there is a moment, when one reads an address, in which, with a certain wiliness, they begin to look at the clock, as if to say: “But when will he finish talking?” Therefore, you will read the address.
I thank you so much for this dialogue, for this visit, for this beauty of the differences that make up a community: one from another and vice versa, and all make up the unity of the Church. Thank you so much, and pray for me.[A small boy approaches] Come, you also, come …
Now, stay seated tranquilly and, as good children, let us pray to our Mother, Our Lady. Let us all together pray to Our Lady. Hail, Mary …[Blessing]
And please pray for me. Thank you.[Original text: Italian] [Translation by ZENIT]
Cardinal Turkson: Fight Hunger, Not the Hungry by ZENIT Staff

In the context of today’s meetings, the World Food Programme put together a booklet with contributions from faith leaders about the fight against hunger. Here is the contribution requested from Cardinal Peter K.A. Turks, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
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Hunger is too real in this world. We either experience it or we know about it. We know that there are millions of human beings without enough nourishment for body, mind and spirit.
As long as hunger is not overcome, humanity will not live in peace. We will not have peace so long as some banquet daily while others are starving at their doorstep or on the other side of the planet. For ours is one common home, and we eat at one common table.
Let us work together for sustainable food, nutrition and food-security. Let us overcome food insecurity, not eliminate the hungry!
Many different approaches are needed. The key is to turn global hunger into a human issue: hunger comes from a lack of solidarity, hunger comes from failing to feel, relate and behave as brothers and sisters. And like every great human issue, it is also a moral issue. It involves the exercise of human freedom. We are free to show disinterest and indifference. We are free to exercise good will. The choice is no one else’s – it is our own free moral choice.
Pope Francis gives this example in Laudato si’: “When cooperatives of small producers adopt less polluting means of production, and opt for a non-consumerist model of life, recreation and community,” then “another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral” really does seem possible. “Will the promise last, in spite of everything, with all that is authentic rising up in stubborn resistance?”(§ 112).
The better alternatives may appear very small compared to the magnitude of the challenges we face. But it was also a little thing, those five loaves and two fish that, one day, an anonymous boy made available to Jesus facing thousands of hungry people. Not only was there enough to feed a crowd of five thousand: the left-overs filled twelve baskets. When food becomes Eucharist, when bread, recognized as a gift of God, is blessed, broken, given and shared, paradoxes are overcome and fraternity becomes reality. Joy fills our common home.
3 June 2016
Pope’s Address to World Food Program Executive Board by ZENIT Staff

This morning, Pope Francis made his first visit to the United Nations World Food Programme, the United Nations agency that fights hunger, with offices in Rome. It is the first ever Papal visit to WFP, and comes during the first year of work towards the landmark Sustainable Development Goals. These 17 goals have been agreed by all UN Member States and aim to tackle the root causes of poverty and hunger. At the core of WFP’s work is a drive to achieve the goal of Zero Hunger by the year 2030.
In his address the Pope said that the “consumerism in which our societies are immersed has made us grow accustomed to excess and to the daily waste of food.” He also noted that little by little we “are growing immune to other people’s tragedies, seeing them as something “natural”, adding, “we need to “de-naturalize” extreme poverty.”
Address of His Holiness Pope Francis
To the Executive Board of the World Food Programme
Rome, 13 June 2016
I thank Executive Director Ertharin Cousin for her invitation to inaugurate the 2016 annual meeting of the Executive Board of the World Food Programme, and for her kind words of welcome. I greet Ambassador Stephanie Hochstetter Skinner-Klée, President of this important gathering of representatives of different governments called to promote concrete initiatives in the fight against hunger. In offering a warm greeting to all of you, I express my gratitude for your many efforts and commitments in service of a cause that challenges us all: combatting the hunger from which so many of our brothers and sisters are suffering.
A few moments ago, I prayed before the Memorial Wall, a testimony to the sacrifice made by members of this organization who gave their lives so that, in complex and difficult situations, others would not go hungry. We remember them best by continuing to fight for the great goal of “zero hunger”. Those names, enshrined at the entrance of this building, are an eloquent sign that the WFP, far from a cold and anonymous institution, is an effective means for the international community to carry out ever more robust and productive activities. The credibility of an institution is not based on its declarations, but on the work accomplished by its members.
We live in an interconnected world marked by instant communications. Geographical distances seem to be shrinking. We can immediately know what is happening on the other side of the planet. Communications technologies, by bringing us face to face with so many tragic situations, can help, and have helped, to mobilize responses of compassion and solidarity. Paradoxically though, this apparent closeness created by the information highway seems daily to be breaking down. An information overload is gradually leading to the “naturalization” of extreme poverty. In other words, little by little we are growing immune to other people’s tragedies, seeing them as something “natural”. We are bombarded by so many images that we see pain, but do not touch it; we hear weeping, but do not comfort it; we see thirst but do not satisfy it. All those human lives turn into one more news story. While the headlines may change, the pain, the hunger and the thirst remain; they do not go away.
This tendency – or temptation – demands something more of us. It also makes us realize the fundamental role that institutions like your own play on the global scene. Today we cannot be satisfied simply with being aware of the problems faced by many of our brothers and sisters. It is not enough to offer broad reflections or engage in endless discussion, constantly repeating things everyone knows. We need to “de-naturalize” extreme poverty, to stop seeing it as a statistic rather than a reality. Why? Because poverty has a face! It has the face of a child; it has the face of a family; it has the face of people, young and old. It has the face of widespread unemployment and lack of opportunity. It has the face of forced migrations, and of empty or destroyed homes.
We cannot “naturalize” the fact that so many people are starving. We cannot simply say that their situation is the result of blind fate and that nothing can be done about it. Once poverty no longer has a face, we can yield to the temptation of discussing “hunger”, “food” and “violence” as concepts, without reference to the real people knocking on our doors today. Without faces and stories, human lives become statistics and we run the risk of bureaucratizing the sufferings of others. Bureaucracies shuffle papers; compassion deals with people.
Here I believe that we have much to do. In addition to everything already being done, we need to work at “denaturalizing” and “debureaucratizing” the poverty and hunger of our brothers and sisters. This requires us to intervene on different scales and levels, focusing on real people who are suffering and starving, while drawing upon an abundance of enthusiasm and potential that we need to help exploit.
1. “Denaturalizing” poverty
During my visit to the FAO for the Second International Conference on Nutrition, I spoke of the paradox that, while there is enough food for everyone, yet “not everyone can eat”, even as we witness “waste, excessive consumption and the use of food for other purposes” (Address to the Plenary of the Conference [20 November 2014], 3).
Let us be clear. Food shortage is not something natural, it is not a given, something obvious or self-evident. The fact that today, well into the twenty-first century, so many people suffer from this scourge is due to a selfish and wrong distribution of resources, to the “merchandizing” of food. The earth, abused and exploited, continues in many parts of the world to yield its fruits, offering us the best of itself. The faces of the starving remind us that we have foiled its purposes. We have turned a gift with a universal destination into a privilege enjoyed by a select few. We have made the fruits of the earth – a gift to humanity – commodities for a few, thus engendering exclusion. The consumerism in which our societies are immersed has made us grow accustomed to excess and to the daily waste of food. At times we are no longer able even to see the just value of food, which goes far beyond mere economic parameters. We need to be reminded that food discarded is, in a certain sense stolen, from the table of poor and the starving. This reality invites us to reflect on the problem of unused and wasted food, and to identify ways and means which, by taking this problem seriously, can serve as a vehicle of solidarity and sharing with those most in need (cf. Catechesis, 5 June 2013).
2. “Debureaucratizing” hunger
We need to be frank: some issues have been bureaucratized. Some activities have been “shelved”. Everyone is aware of the present instability of the world situation. Lately war and the threat of war have been uppermost in our minds and our discussions. Thus, given the wide gamut of present conflicts, arms seem to have gained unprecedented importance, completely sidelining other ways of resolving the issues at hand. This approach is so deeply engrained and taken for granted that it prevents food supplies from being distributed in war zones, in violation of the most fundamental and age-old principles and rules of international law.
We thus find ourselves faced with a strange paradox. Whereas forms of aid and development projects are obstructed by involved and incomprehensible political decisions, skewed ideological visions and impenetrable customs barriers, weaponry is not. It makes no difference where arms come from; they circulate with brazen and virtually absolute freedom in many parts of the world. As a result, wars are fed, not persons. In some cases, hunger itself is used as a weapon of war. The death count multiplies because the number of people dying of hunger and thirst is added to that of battlefield casualties and the civilian victims of conflicts and attacks.
We are fully aware of this, yet we allow our conscience to be anesthetized. We become desensitized. Force then becomes our one way of acting, and power becomes our only goal. Those who are most vulnerable not only suffer the effects of war but also see obstacles placed in the way of help. Hence it is urgent to debureaucratize everything that keeps humanitarian assistance projects from being realized. In this regard, you play a fundamental role, for we need true heroes capable of blazing trails, building bridges, opening channels concerned primarily with the faces of those who suffer. Initiatives of the international community must similarly be directed to this end.
It is not a question of harmonizing interests that remain linked to narrow national interests or shameful forms of selfishness. Rather, it is a matter of the member states decisively increasing their commitment to cooperate with the World Food Program. In this way the WFP will not only be able to respond to urgent needs, but also to carry out sound projects and promote long-term development programmes, as requested by each of the governments and consonant with the needs of peoples.
Through its mission and its activities, the World Food Programme has shown that it is possible to coordinate scientific knowledge, technical decisions and practical actions with efforts aimed at obtaining resources and distributing them impartially, that is to say, with respect for the needs of those who receive them and the will of the donors. This method, in those areas that are most depressed and poor, can and must ensure an appropriate development of local capacities and gradually eliminate external dependence, while at the same time making it possible to reduce food loss and to ensure that nothing goes to waste. In a word, the WFP is an excellent example of how one can work throughout the world to eradicate hunger through a better allotment of human and material resources, strengthening the local community. In this sense, I encourage you to move forward. Do not grow weary or let problems dissuade you. Believe in what you are doing and pursue it enthusiastically. That is how the seed of generosity grows and bears abundant fruit.
The Catholic Church, in fidelity to her mission, wishes to cooperate with every initiative that defends and protects the dignity of persons, especially of those whose rights are violated. In implementing this urgent priority of “zero hunger”, I assure you of our complete support and encouragement for the efforts in course.
“I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink”. These words embody one of the axioms of Christianity. Independent of creeds and convictions, they can serve as a golden rule for our peoples. A people plays out its future by its ability to respond to the hunger and thirst of its brothers and sisters. In that ability to come to the aid of the hungry and thirsty, we can measure the pulse of our humanity. For this reason, I desire that the fight to eradicate the hunger and thirst of our brothers and sisters, and with our brothers and sisters, will continue to challenge us to seek creative solutions of change and transformation. May Almighty God sustain with his blessing the work of your hands. Thank you.[Translation provided by the Vatican]
© Copyright – Libreria Editrice Vaticana
President of US Bishops on Orlando Attack: A Reminder of How Precious Life Is by ZENIT Staff

On Sunday, the leader of the US bishops’ conference released a brief statement regarding the attack early that morning in Orlando. A gunman took the lives of some 50 people when he opened fire at a bar in the city.
Here is the message from Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville:
WASHINGTON—Waking up to the unspeakable violence in Orlando reminds us of how precious human life is. Our prayers are with the victims, their families and all those affected by this terrible act. The merciful love of Christ calls us to solidarity with the suffering and to ever greater resolve in protecting the life and dignity of every person.
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Bishop John Noonan of Orlando also issued a statement Sunday in which he said:
A sword has pierced the heart of our city. Since learning of the tragedy this morning, I have urged all to pray for the victims, the families and first responders. I pray that the Lord’s mercy will be upon us during this time of sadness, shock and confusion. I urge people of faith to turn their hearts and souls to the great physician, our Lord Jesus Christ, who consoles and carries us through suffering with mercy and tenderness. The healing power of Jesus goes beyond our physical wounds but touches every level of our humanity: physical, emotional, social, spiritual. Jesus calls us to remain fervent in our protection of life and human dignity and to pray unceasingly for peace in our world.
Priests, deacons and counselors from the Diocese of Orlando and Catholic Charities of Central Florida are serving at the Aid Center established by the City of Orlando. They are on site helping victims and families on the front lines of this tragedy. Throughout the day, they are offering God’s love and mercy to those who are facing unimaginable sorrow. They will remain vigilant and responsive to the needs of our hurting brothers and sisters.
I have asked all of our parishes to include prayer intentions during the celebration of Sunday Mass today where close to 400,000 registered Catholics participate in nine counties of Central Florida. At our 91 parishes and missions, today’s prayers have been offered for victims of violence and acts of terror…for their families and friends…and all those affected by such acts against God’s love. We pray for the people of the city of Orlando that God’s mercy and love will be upon us as we seek healing and consolation.
Pope’s Off-the-Cuff Address to World Food Program Staff by ZENIT Staff

After the address to the Assembly of the World Food Program , the Holy Father met in the garden of World Food Program’s (WFP) office in Rome with staff and their families and the children that attend the nursery school and he greeted them off-the-cuff.
Here is a translation of the transcription of the words pronounced by Pope Francis:
* * *
I should give an address in Spanish, but the majority of you don’t understand Spanish; you understand Italian because you live in Italy. And addresses are also boring! So I hand the address to be given later, and I’ll say a few words that come to me spontaneously from the heart.
The first thing I want to say to you, in my bad Italian, is thank you. Thank you because you do the hidden work, the work from “behind the scenes,” which is not seen, but which makes possible for all to go ahead. You are like the foundation of a palace: without foundations, the palace doesn’t stand. So many projects, so many things can be done, and are done in the world, in the fight against hunger, and so many courageous people do them – but they do so thanks to your support, to your hidden help. Your names appear only on the staff list – and at the end of the month in that of payroll — but outside no one knows your name. Yet your names make this great work possible, this great work of the fight against hunger. Thanks to a small endeavor, a small sacrifice, your hidden sacrifice, small or great, so many children can eat, so much hunger is overcome. Thank you so much.
When I heard the Program’s Directress speak, I thought to myself: this is a courageous woman! And I believe all of you have this courage: the courage to carry forward a work from behind the scenes and help. It’s the courage of those individuals that are seen, because in a body there are feet, there are hands, there is also the face: the face is seen, but the feet are not seen, because they are hidden in the shoes; but you are the feet, the hands that sustain the courage of all those that go ahead, that have also sustained the courage of your “martyrs,” let’s say so, of your witnesses — never, never forget the names of those that are written there, at the entrance. They were able to do those things because of the courage they had, because of the faith they had in their work, but also because they were supported by your work. Thank you so much. And I ask you to pray for me, so that I too can do something against hunger. Thank you![Original text: Italian] [Translation by ZENIT]
Pope’s Prepared Address to World Food Program Staff by ZENIT Staff

After the address to the Assembly of the World Food Program, the Holy Father met in the garden of World Food Program’s (WFP) office in Rome with the organization’s dependents, their families and the children that frequent the nursery school, and he greeted them off-the-cuff.
Here is a Vatican-provided translation of the address he prepared beforehand.
* * *
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends, Good day! I am happy to be able to meet you in this simple and familiar setting, typical of the style with which you carry out your work in the service of so many of our brothers and sisters. In you, they see reflected that face of today’s world that is concerned for solidarity and mutual assistance. My thoughts also turn to your many colleagues throughout the world who cooperate with the World Food Program. I thank all of you for your warm and friendly welcome.
The Executive Director has told me of the important work which you do with great competence, generosity and no small sacrifice, often in situations that are challenging and insecure as a result of natural or human causes. The breadth and gravity of the problems addressed by the World Food Program demands your steady enthusiasm, unstinting commitment and constant readiness to serve. Together with continuing professional formation, great sensitivity and intuition, you are called to have a deep sense of compassion, without which everything else would lack real effectiveness and meaning.
The WFP has entrusted you with a lofty mission. The success of that mission depends in no small part on your ability not to get bogged down in bureaucratic details, but to bring initiative, imagination and professionalism to your daily work, as you seek new and effective ways to eliminate the malnutrition and hunger suffered by so many people throughout the world. They are pleading for our attention and concern. That is why it is important not to get weighed down by dossiers but to see, behind each of those papers, a real person with a real and often painful story. The secret is to see behind every dossier a human face in need of assistance. Hearing the cry of the poor will help you to avoid viewing each case in cold bureaucratic terms. We can never do enough to eliminate so terrible a phenomenon as hunger.
Hunger is one of the major threats to peace in our world. It is a threat that we cannot be content merely to deplore or to study academically. It has to be decisively faced and urgently resolved. Each of us, within his or her own area of responsibility, must do everything possible to bring about a definitive solution to this human tragedy, which degrades and shortens the lives of so many of our brothers and sisters. When it comes to helping those are starving, none can be exempted or think they are excused because the problem is too big, or one that does not affect them.
Development – human, social, technical and economic – is the essential way to ensure that each person, family, community and people can meet its basic needs. This means that our work is not in the service of some abstract idea or the defense of some theoretical dignity, but aimed at protecting the life of each human being. In the poorest and most depressed areas, this means providing food in the case of emergencies, but also enabling access to funding and technical resources, employment and microcredit, and in this way ensuring that the local population increases its ability to respond to unexpected crises.
Here I am not referring simply to material matters. What is needed above all else is a moral commitment that makes it possible for me to feel responsibility for the person beside me, as well as for the overall goal of the program as a whole. You are called to advance and protect this commitment through a service that might appear at first glance to be exclusively technical in nature. Instead, what you are achieving are actions that call for a great moral strength, because they help build up the common good in each country and in the entire international community.
In the face of so many challenges and crises, it might appear that the future of humanity will simply involve facing ever new and interrelated problems and threats, unpredictable both in their extent and in their complexity. This is something you know quite well from your own experience. But it should not dishearten us. Encourage and help one another to avoid the temptation of discouragement or indifference. More importantly, believe firmly that your daily efforts are helping to give our world a human face and to make it into a place whose cardinal points are compassion, solidarity, mutual assistance and gratuity. The greater your generosity, your tenacity and your faith, the more will multilateral forms of cooperation be able to devise suitable solutions to these troubling problems. The more they will succeed in expanding shortsighted and selfish visions, in opening new paths to hope, a just human development, sustainability and efforts to close the gap of unjust economic inequalities, which so greatly harm the most vulnerable members of our human family.
Upon each of you and your families, and upon your contributions to the World Food Program, I invoke God’s abundant blessings.
I ask all of you to pray for me, from the heart, or at least to wish me well. I need this very much. Thank you.[Original text: Spanish] [Translation by the Vatican]
Pope’s Telephone Message to Macerata-Loreto Pilgrims by ZENIT Staff

Here is a ZENIT translation of Pope Francis’ telephone message yesterday to the participants in the 38th Macerata-Loreto Pilgrimage on foot, after the opening Eucharistic Celebration, presided over by Cardinal Edoardo Menichelli, Archbishop of Ancona-Osimo, in theHelvetia Recina Stadium of Macerata.
The near-17.5 mile (28 kilometer) pilgrimage is made on foot and at night, concluding at the Shrine of Loreto where the Holy House is.
The Holy House is traditionally held to be the home of the Holy Family. Tradition says that in 1294, the Holy House of Nazareth, where the Virgin Mary was born and where the Annunciation took place, was transported by angels to the town of Loreto.
Loreto has thus been a pilgrimage site since the early 14th century.
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Good evening, dear friends,
The bishop tells me that it’s raining there, but the rain is also a grace, because it’s bad, but also good! It has two aspects. It’s bad because it’s an annoyance, but it’s good because it’s like the figure of God’s grace that comes upon us. You are now beginning your walk. None of us knows how long our life will last, but it is a journey.
And when one believes he can live his life without walking … One cannot live one’s life standing still. Life is for walking, for doing something, for going forward, for building a social friendship, a just society, for proclaiming Jesus’ Gospel.
I am close to you this evening; I am close to you in my prayer; I accompany you and I wish you a night of prayer and joy. There certainly will also be a bit of suffering, but this is surmounted with the hope of the encounter, tomorrow, with the Eucharistic Jesus.
I bless you! Always walk in life; never, never stop; always be on the way. Life is this!
And pray also for me, that I may not stop and continue to go on the way, the way that the Lord will point out to me.
I give you my blessing, dear friends, and I hope you will have a night of walking, of prayer, of joy, of fraternity and with your look towards Our Lady and towards the Eucharist, which you will receive tomorrow.
Now we pray all together to Our Lady: Ave Maria …
I give you my blessing. May God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit bless you. And please, don’t forget to pray for me. I embrace you all.
An embrace and pray for me. Good night.[Original Text: Italian] [Translation by ZENIT]
Pope’s Address to Summer Course Organized by Vatican Observatory by ZENIT Staff

Below is the Vatican-provided translation of Pope Francis’ discourse,Saturday morning, to participants of a summer course organized by the Vatican Observatory:
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Dear friends,
I am happy to welcome you, the professors and students of the summer course organized by the Jesuit Fathers of the Vatican Observatory. This impressive representation of persons from various countries and different cultures is a sign of how diversity can greatly enrich scientific research. I thank Father Paul Mueller, the Vice-Director of the Observatory, and the professors who generously accompany you young astronomers in the complex and exciting activity of studying the universe, the incomparable gift of the Creator. My gratitude goes also to those who through their generosity have contributed to make this international course possible.
Pope Leo XIII established the Vatican Observatory in 1891, exactly 125 years ago, not least to confirm the Church’s support for “true and solid science, whether human or divine” (Motu Proprio Ut Mysticam, 14 March 1891). Over the years, the Observatory has sought to fulfil its original purpose by employing new scientific instruments as well as the tools of dialogue and cooperation with other centres of research.
Your presence at this summer school is also a sign that the desire to understand the universe, God’s Creation, and our own place in it, is shared by men and women of very diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. All of us dwell under the same sky. All of us are moved by the beauty revealed in the cosmos and reflected in the study of the heavenly bodies and substances. In this sense, we are united by the desire to discover the truth about how this marvelous universe operates; and in this, we draw ever closer to the Creator.
It is timely and providential that this fifteenth summer school is concerned with the study of water in the solar system and elsewhere. We all know how essential water is here on earth: for life, for us human beings and for our work. From the tiniest snowflake to the greatest waterfalls, from lakes and rivers to immense oceans, water fascinates us by its power and, at the same time, its simplicity. The great civilizations originated beside rivers, and in our day access to pure water continues to be an issue of justice for the human race, for rich and poor alike.
Dear brothers and sisters, scientific research demands great commitment, yet can sometimes prove lengthy and tiresome. At the same time, it can, and should be, a source of deep joy. I pray that you will be able to cultivate that interior joy and allow it to inspire your work. Share it with your friends, your families and your nations, as well as with the international community of scientists with whom you work. May you always find joy in your research and share the fruit of your studies with humility and fraternity.
With these prayerful good wishes, I cordially invoke the Lord’s abundant blessings upon you and your work. And I ask you please to remember me in your prayers.[Original Text: Italian] [Vatican-provided translation]
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