In a pointed condemnation, the pope decried the use of hunger as a weapon of war, though he refrained from specifying any particular conflict
Newsroom (16/10/2025, Gaudium Press ) Pope Leo XIV called on world leaders to take responsibility for addressing global hunger, conflict, and suffering during a poignant address at the World Food Day ceremony on Thursday, which also marked the 80th anniversary of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at its Rome headquarters.
The American pontiff delivered a powerful plea for the international community to confront the plight of millions facing food insecurity and war, explicitly naming crises in Ukraine, Gaza, Haiti, Afghanistan, Mali, the Central African Republic, Yemen, and South Sudan. Citing U.N. data, he highlighted that approximately 673 million people worldwide suffer from insufficient daily food intake.
“We can no longer delude ourselves by thinking that the consequences of our failures impact only those who are hidden out of sight,” Pope Leo said, speaking primarily in Spanish before concluding in English. “The hungry faces of so many who still suffer challenge us and invite us to reexamine our lifestyles, our priorities, and our overall way of living in today’s world. We must make their suffering our own.”
In a pointed condemnation, the pope decried the use of hunger as a weapon of war, though he refrained from specifying any particular conflict. “In a time when science has lengthened life expectancy, allowing millions of human beings to live, and die, struck by hunger is a collective failure, an ethical derailment, an historic offence,” he declared.
The address comes amid dire warnings from U.N. food aid agencies, which are grappling with severe funding cuts from major donors, including the United States under the Trump administration. The World Food Program (WFP), the U.N.’s largest food aid agency, reported Wednesday that its funding is at an unprecedented low, threatening operations in critical regions. The WFP warned that 13.7 million of its aid recipients in countries such as Afghanistan, Congo, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan face emergency levels of hunger due to these reductions.
Pope Leo’s remarks underscored the urgency of collective action, urging global leaders to prioritize the alleviation of suffering and to address the systemic failures exacerbating hunger and conflict worldwide.
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