Thanks to globalization and to the interfaith and ecumenical dialogue promoted by the Second Vatican Council, the various religions know one other better.
On the basis of this new mutual knowledge, religions today are called to act together to promote and defend the human dignity of each person and their body, as well as the planet.
The loss and waste of food affects both climate change and people’s lives and bodies.
While the Second Vatican Council fostered a dialogue strictly around the religious theme, that is to say what united us and differentiated us in relation to the notion of God, the Pope today wants us to walk and act together to promote and defend human beings and their habitats, as well as the loss and waste of their food.
In order to accentuate this novelty, the recent Synod of the Amazon proposed the idea of a sin against nature or against God the creator. A sin is committed against nature when it is abused. A sin is committed against nature, against human beings and against God the creator, when food is lost or wasted.
In the Lord’s Prayer, the model of every Christian prayer, we ask God to give us our daily bread. Bread is a symbol of all food or energy we need to survive and live well and happily.
Asking God for our daily bread means that we are willing to do everything in our power to have that bread. Just as when I ask God for peace, I am supposed to do everything in my power to obtain peace, so when I ask God for daily bread, I am supposed to do everything in my power to obtain such bread.
And I ask God not only for everyday bread for myself, but I ask for daily bread for all: “Our Father… give us our daily bread”. Therefore, this requires me to take responsibility to do everything in my hands not only for me to have my daily bread but for all of us to have our daily bread.
Such a requirement implies a new or renewed moral imperative to do everything in my power so that I and all the members of the human family have daily bread.
Now for everyone to have our daily bread it is necessary to produce enough food for the whole human family, taking into account the situation of the planet due to climate change, that is to say, to produce food not only without damaging the sources of nature but by sustainably developing such production, or according to bioeconomic criteria.
Secondly, it is necessary that food and waste is not lost or wasted throughout the entire production and distribution chain.
In brief, religions and faiths need to act together to produce and distribute enough food for the entire population of the world, based on the criteria of sustainable development and bioeconomic criteria, without damaging the planet or losing or wasting any resources.