Below is the intervention given by Cardinal Peter Turksen on the first day of the Pontifical
Academy of Sciences Working Group on “Bread and Brain, Education and
Poverty” which takes place in the Vatican from 4-6 November 2013
With
greetings from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, I am glad
and honoured to open this Working Group of the Pontifical Academy of
Sciences, dedicated to a study of the topic: “Bread and Brain, Education and Poverty” and wish you great success.
The four terms of the title, skilfully set out as a chiasmus, causally relate Hunger and Poverty to Education. They refer to the situation, both tragic and scandalous, of millions of impoverished human beings who lack nourishment for body, mind and spirit, that is, both food and education.
Indeed, Bread and Brain, Education and Poverty reminds
us that the intrinsic correlation between brain development and
nourishment inspired the close sequence of the first two Millennium
Development Goals, namely, the elimination of extreme poverty and
hunger, and universal primary education. In response, school feeding programmes have sprung up around the globe, in developed and developing countries.
Furthermore, these days of study embody a wish to apply the fruits of brain activity, including scientific research, biological and other technologies and social innovation, to food production and to poverty alleviation.
Describing
these various senses, dear Friends, provides a small taste of how
ramified and related it is with other areas of study and concerns of
human existence. Ultimately, our topic broaches the issue of basic rights and needs, the issue of human dignity and the issue of justice and peace. Indeed, for Pope Benedict XVI, “the
elimination of world hunger has also, in the global era, become a
requirement for safeguarding the peace and stability of the planet.”
Malnutrition
of mind and body – lack of food and lack of learning – is a horrendous
double helix. It must be addressed with great urgency, but not only by
sound scientific research and solid social policies in order to achieve
real improvements in education, food production and distribution,
sustainable agriculture and nutrition security. As a coefficient of
development or under-development, it must be addressed, above all, with a
rediscovered sense of Christian humanism, characterised by solidarity
and brotherhood .
The Pontifical Academy of the Sciences has
invited an impressive interdisciplinary group of international experts
to explore these issues with both competence and serious commitment.
My prayer is that your lively conversation at this Working Group may contribute to the essential larger dialogue, as Gaudium et Spes
taught: “The Church sincerely professes that all [people], believers
and unbelievers alike, ought to work for the rightful betterment of this
world in which all alike live; such an ideal cannot be realized,
however, apart from sincere and prudent dialogue.” This dialogue must
address many obstacles of different kinds that are retarding a fair
global solution to the problems of poverty and hunger, whose main root
is first and finally the lack of brotherhood among persons and peoples.
Let
us bring our best energies to the common task in the greatest spiritual
freedom, as Pope Francis insisted in his Message to the Food and
Agricultural Organization: “To move forward constructively and
fruitfully in the different functions and responsibilities involves the
ability to analyze, understand, and engage, leaving behind the
temptations of power, wealth or self-interest and instead serving the
human family, especially the needy and those suffering from hunger and
malnutrition.”
As we read in the Preface to the Working Group’s Programme, in the Lord’s Prayer we address not “my” but “our” Father, we plead not for “my” but for “our” daily bread. By saying “our”
and praying on behalf of everyone who shares a single common origin in
God our Creator, we engage ourselves to take up the task of producing
and distributing food and of making education available to all his sons
and daughters, to all our brothers and sisters.
May the Church
thus accompany the poor, “providing for their most urgent needs,
defending their rights and working together with them to build a society
founded on justice and peace.” And may a new double helix of nutrition
and learning become part of our human makeup, thanks to this Working
Group whose labours we entrust to the Almighty.