VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV said hunger violates human dignity and insisted that dependable access to adequate food is a fundamental human right in a World Food Day message issued Friday.

Writing to Qu Dongyu, director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the pope said: “Regular access to safe, adequate and sufficient food, in keeping with the dignity of every person, is a basic human right.”

The message was sent while Pope Leo recovered from surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. World Food Day, observed each year on Oct. 16, commemorates the FAO’s founding in 1945.

Call for political action and charity

Pope Leo said hunger persists principally because political commitment and shared charity are lacking. He urged the United Nations to work toward a new international food order.

He also said food deprivation must not be employed as an instrument of war. “It is a terrible offense against human dignity to prevent bread from reaching any person or to destroy the means by which it is produced,” the pope wrote.

The FAO’s 2025 annual report estimated that 645 million people experienced hunger worldwide. It counted 35.5 million children as severely malnourished, with hunger concentrated chiefly in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Pope Leo previously visited the U.N. World Food Programme headquarters in Rome on June 22, 2026.

Category: Vatican