Pope Francis: UN food systems summit "an opportunity to build a more just world'

Pope Francis sends a message to the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres on the occasion of the UN Pre-Summit on Food Systems, which is taking place in Rome from the 26-28 July, Vatican News reports.

Under the leadership of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and hosted by the Italian government, the Pre-Summit on Food Systems will bring together the efforts and contributions of a global engagement process started in 2020 with the goal of transforming food systems, and paving the way for an ambitious and productive summit in September.

In a message to the Secretary General, Pope Francis said this important meeting “highlights how one of our greatest challenges today is to overcome hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in the era of COVID-19.”

This pandemic, he added, “has confronted us with the systemic injustices that undermine our unity as a human family,” while the poorest and the Earth itself "cries out for the damage we inflict on it through irresponsible use and abuse of the goods God has placed in it."

The Pope noted that while new technologies are developed in order to increase “the planet's capacity to bear fruit,” we continue to “exploit nature to the point of sterilisation, thus expanding not only external deserts but also internal spiritual deserts.“