REUTER INFORMATION CENTER - Wednesday 13 November 1996 Pope, opening World Food Summit, deplores gap between rich and poor Copyright © 1996 Nando.net Copyright © 1996 Reuter Information Service ROME (Nov 13, 1996 09:01 a.m. EST) - Pope John Paul called on world leaders on Wednesday to bridge the gulf between rich and poor, telling a U.N.-sponsored World Food Summit it was "intolerable" that some people starved while others lived in opulence. He told delegates attending the 194-nation summit to make every effort to "eliminate the specter of hunger from the planet" or future generations would face the consequences. "We have to search together for solutions so that there are no longer hungry people living side by side with people living in opulence," he said in his French-language speech. "This contrast between poverty and wealth is intolerable for humanity." In a clear reference to eastern Zaire, the Pope said he felt close to "refugees forced to leave their countries and too often left without assistance." The 76-year-old Pope also took a swipe at those who say that the key to food security is population control, an issue which pitted the Vatican against the United States in a heated battle at the U.N. population conference in Cairo in 1994. "Demography alone does not explain the inadequate distribution of food resources. We must put aside the sophist view that when there are many, one is condemned to be poor," the Pope said. "A numerous population can become the source of development because it implies the exchange and demand of goods," he said. The Pope, who has strongly defended the right of couples to have as many children as they want, said that while every family had duties and responsibilities a state's population policies had to respect individual human rights. "It would be illusory to believe that an arbitrary stabilization of the world population, or even its reduction, could solve the problem of hunger directly," he said. The Pope said the world had to recognize that the real reasons behind food insecurity was not lack of resources but often political instability, war, money spent for weapons, and an international debt that shackled developing countries. He also said food insecurity was sometimes caused by "embargoes imposed without sufficient reasoning." The Vatican has in the past criticized embargoes imposed on Cuba and Iraq, saying they hurt the poor most. The Pope, repeating the theme of a recent Vatican document on hunger, said there was enough food to feed everyone in the world but other factors failed to get it to the people. "Leaders, economists and everyone of goodwill must look for every possible way of sharing more equitably resources which are not lacking," he said. "By sharing in this way, everyone will demonstrate their sense of fraternity." He bluntly told the leaders that "nothing will change at the world level" if their governments failed to follow up the commitments set up in the summit's plan of action. It contains a specific pledge to reduce the number of undernourished people in the world to half the present level of 840 million by no later than the year 2015. The Pope decried economic policies based solely on the desire for profit and said the world must reach a point where food security was an inextricable factor of world peace. "All of this is insufficient if we do not also strive to educate people towards justice, solidarity and the love of man, joined together in brotherhood," he said.
