The Right to Food Campaign

On Tuesday, December 10, Caritas International, the umbrella organization of 164 Catholic organizations that provide disaster relief and human development, is launching a campaign to combat world hunger through prayer and action.   In the United States the campaign is being led by Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities.   The campaign will begin with a 24 hour prayer vigil.  It will begin at noon, local time, in Samoa (the first country west of the International Date Line) and continue around the world for 24 hours.

Catholics around the world are asked to participate by joining in prayer at noon local time, wherever they are.  The following prayer has been composed for the occasion:

O God, you entrusted to us the fruits of all creation so that we

might care for the earth and be nourished with its bounty.

You sent us your Son to share our very flesh and blood and to

teach us your Law of Love. Through His death and

resurrection, we have been formed into one human family.

Jesus showed great concern for those who had no food–even

transforming five loaves and two fish into a banquet that served five

thousand and many more.

We come before you, O God, conscious of our faults and failures,

but full of hope, to share food with all members in this global family.

Through your wisdom, inspire leaders of government and of

business, as well as all the world’s citizens, to find just, and

charitable solutions to end hunger by assuring that all people

enjoy the right to food.

Thus we pray, O God, that when we present ourselves for

Divine Judgment, we can proclaim ourselves as “One Human

Family” with “Food for All”.   AMEN.

We wish to take up daily the joys and hopes, the difficulties and sorrows of the Brazilian people, especially of those living in the barrios and the countryside – landless, homeless, lacking food and health care – to the detriment of their rights. Seeing their poverty, hearing their cries and knowing their sufferings, we are scandalized because we know that there is enough food for everyone and that hunger is the result of a poor distribution of goods and income.  

                 Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium 191, quoting the Bishops of Brazil