Pope’s call against hunger

ROME (EFE).— Pope Francis yesterday condemned the waste of food, which he called “a scandal,” especially given the number of countries suffering from hunger, during an audience with the Italian Financial Police.

“Food waste is a scandal! (…) How can we explain today’s world hunger, when there is so much waste in developed societies? This is terrible,” said the Pope.

Francis also regretted that there are “states that, despite having enormous resources, remain isolated at the financial level or in the global market” and reiterated that “if they stopped manufacturing weapons for a year, world hunger would end,” but for some “weapons are better than solving hunger.”

The Pope praised the agents of this Italian Financial Police because they are in charge of “monitoring the duty of every citizen to contribute according to criteria of equity to the needs of the State, without favoring the strongest,” and because they “combat the inappropriate use of the Internet and social networks.”

“Whether it is in relation to tax collection or in the fight against undeclared and poorly paid work – this is another scandal – or, in any case, harmful to human dignity, your action is of paramount importance,” he told them.

He also urged them to “fight corruption and promote legality, the corruption that happens under the table.”

“Corruption reveals antisocial behavior so strong that it dissolves the validity of relationships and the pillars on which a society is founded,” he said.

He praised his “fight against the scourge of drug trafficking, the merchants of death.”

“Your service is not limited to the protection of victims, but includes the attempt to help those who make mistakes to be reborn: in fact, by acting with respect and moral integrity, you can touch consciences, showing the possibility of a different life,” he added.

In conclusion, he asked everyone to be able to “build an alternative to the globalization of indifference, which destroys with violence and war, but which also neglects the care of society and the environment.”