VATICAN CITY, JUNE 2, 2008 (Zenit.org).- There is an ethical duty to fight against hunger, especially when children are the hungry ones, Benedict XVI said to Guatemala's new ambassador to the Holy See.
The Pope said this Saturday upon receiving in audience Acisclo Valladares Molina, a renowned lawyer and two-time presidential candidate, who previously served as the Guatemalan ambassador to the Holy See from 2000 to 2004.
In his address to the new ambassador, the Pontiff focused on the problem of child hunger: “There is an ethical motive behind the right to food: ‘I was hungry and you gave me to eat,’ which exhorts us to share material goods as a demonstration of the love that we all need."
“The objective of eliminating hunger and, at the same time, of counting on healthy and sufficient food, also requires specific actions and methods that permit a harvesting of resources that is respectful of the patrimony of creation," added the Holy Father.
He said the work “is a priority that carries with it not only the fact of benefiting from the results of science, research and technology, but also of being aware of the cycles and rhythm of nature known to the inhabitants of rural areas, as well as the fact of defending the traditional customs of the indigenous communities, leaving selfish and exclusively economic reasoning aside.”
The rock
“This primary right to food," continued Benedict XVI, "is intrinsically connected to the protection and the defense of human life, the first and inviolable rock upon which the entire edifice of human rights is founded.”
He continued: “The effort to help mothers, above all those who are in great difficulty, to bring children into the world with dignity, thus avoiding the unjustified recourse to abortion, will never be sufficient.
“In this sense, safeguarding human life, in particular that which has already been conceived but not yet born, which is more innocent and defenseless, is a duty, with which there is linked, by its very nature, the care that the adoption of children be guaranteed by the legality of the procedures followed for this purpose.”
The Pope also commented on “the scourge of social violence, [which] is often made more acute because of the lack of dialogue and the stability of the family, economic inequality, grave negligence and deficiencies in the area of health care, drug consumption and trafficking and the plague of corruption.”
He praised Guatemala for the steps taken, and encouraged the country “in the fight against these tragedies, steps that must continue to be taken, promoting the cooperation of all to put an end to them, cultivating the right values and the fight against illegality, impunity and corruption.”
