Top photo caption: Pope Leo XIV greets employees of the United Nations’ World Food Program outside its Rome headquarters June 22, 2026. OSV News photo/Simone Risoluti, Vatican Media
By Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News
OSV News — World hunger has only worsened as conflicts in the world take priority over human lives and weaponry is allowed more distribution than basic humanitarian needs, Pope Leo XIV said.
Addressing members of the United Nations’ World Food Program, or WFP, June 22, the Pope said that while alleviating human suffering “is widely recognized as essential in principle,” humanitarian needs have taken a back seat to “international priorities.”
“In effect, conflicts are ‘fed’ more readily than people are nourished. This reality reflects not only operational shortcomings but also a fundamental imbalance in political and moral priorities,” the Pope said.
Headquartered in Rome, the WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security. Present in over 120 countries and territories, the WFP provides food and humanitarian assistance. As of June 2026, WFP has provided 15.8 billion food rations worldwide, the organization said.
Arriving at the WFP headquarters, the Pope was welcomed by Cindy McCain, the organization’s former executive director. McCain, the widow of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., announced in February that she would step down as head of the WFP to focus on her health after suffering a mild stroke in October 2025.
In her welcome address, McCain said for those suffering from hunger, the Pope’s voice was “one of — if not the — the most powerful on earth.”
“You have spoken for them with courage and with love — not as statistics, but as brothers and sisters, human beings made in the image of God, deserving of dignity, of care, and of enough food to live and to thrive,” she said.
In his address, Pope Leo said the WFP’s commitment to those in need “resonates profoundly with the Catholic Church’s mission to uphold human dignity and to foster fraternity, rooted in the Gospel’s call to love our neighbor.”
Reflecting on crises that have evolved from “isolated events into persistent realities,” the Pope said that due to a lack of a “shared ethical horizon,” the world has instead shifted from “multilateralism toward a disorderly and conflict-ridden multipolarism with a prevailing sense of mistrust.”
“This trend reveals a striking paradox: unprecedented global productive capacity exists alongside expanding zones of extreme vulnerability,” he said.
“The same forces that drive economic growth often exacerbate exclusion and marginalization. Although alleviating human suffering is widely recognized as essential in principle, humanitarian concerns increasingly risk being relegated to a secondary place among international priorities,” Pope Leo said.
The pontiff also lamented the “progressive bureaucratization of solidarity” coupled with “the quiet commodification of human life,” which results in delayed assistance to those in need due to bureaucratic red tape and the access to essential aid, especially food, being influenced “by economic or strategic considerations.”
Calling for a “renewed commitment to multilateral cooperation,” the Pope appealed to governments worldwide to increase resources for fighting hunger and “to remove the obstacles that prevent aid from reaching those in need.”
“Access to adequate food is a fundamental human right grounded in the dignity of every person,” he said. “Meeting this need not only alleviates suffering but also addresses the underlying causes of geopolitical instability. Indeed, food security is an essential component of global and integral security.”
After his address, the Pope was escorted to a room where he held a video call with six WFP front-line workers stationed in various parts of the world, including Venezuela, Senegal, South Sudan and Lebanon.
Expressing his gratitude to the workers who have “risked your lives to be in the places where you’re working,” Pope Leo assured them of the “prayers and support for the worldwide community and especially the Catholic Church, which is oftentimes a partner in collaboration with the programs that you oversee.”
Cyril Noujeim, WFP Lebanon’s Program Policy Officer, told the Pope the difficulties of providing assistance in a country “where we don’t have stability.”
“We don’t know whether we are at war or in a ceasefire, or in peace,” he said. Despite the challenges, Noujeim said the WFP continues to deliver assistance in southern Lebanon, “always making sure not to leave anyone behind.”
Thanking Noujeim for his work in Lebanon, the Pope said that many don’t often realize the “cyclical progression” in which “hunger oftentimes is a cause of conflict and conflict causes more hunger.”
“The world today could live without hunger,” Pope Leo added. “The resources should be available; the capacity for food production exists. And yet oftentimes, the resources are spent on promoting war and conflict and other kinds of — if you will — less important end results.”
As a result, he said, “hunger continues to increase in some parts of the world.”
Expressing his gratitude to the front-line workers, Pope Leo encouraged them to continue their work in delivering aid to those in need and invoked God’s blessing in their “very important labor.”
Before departing the WFP headquarters, Pope Leo also expressed his gratitude to dozens of WFP employees gathered outside, saying that he was “sincerely honored” to be with them.
The Pope reflected on the value of community, which he said is needed in today’s polarized world, “affected by so many conflicts and wars where the destruction of human relationships continues because of so many different reasons, including technology.”
“Instead of technology helping us to make a better world in which to live, it’s oftentimes being used as a method of war destruction and death,” Pope Leo said.
“The work that you do, and perhaps even more than the work you do, the spirit that you share as you all work together in building a community and reaching out to those communities that are in need, is indeed a special gift,” he said.
Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.
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