Last Monday, Pope Francis criticized abortion as evidence of a “throwaway culture” that wastes people as well as food, saying such a mentality is a threat to world peace.
The Pope also urges better respect for migrants and denounced the persecution of Christians in Asia, Africa and the Middle East in his global survey of world crises delivered to diplomats accredited to the Holy See. He continued saying hunger is a threat to world peace and noted that not only food, but human beings themselves are often discarded as unnecessary.
“We cannot be indifferent to those suffering from hunger, especially children, when we think of how much food is wasted every day in many parts of the world immersed in what I have often termed ‘the throwaway culture,”‘ Francis said. That culture, he said, also affects the unborn child. “For example, it is frightful even to think that there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day,” he said.
Francis has generally limited his exhortations about abortion, saying church teaching is well known and that he prefers to speak less about the church’s moralizing rules and more about its positive, welcoming message. In his remarks that were less diplomatic and more a reflection of his own priorities, Francis called for the elderly to be treated with respect that their wisdom warrants, and for children to be protected from exploitation, slavery and hunger.
Speaking of conflicts from Mali, North Korea to South Sudan, Francis called upon the international community to do more to end conflicts and care for the most vulnerable. The Pope also decried the persecution of Christians that has forced many to flee the Middle East, resulted in bloodshed in places like Nigeria and Mali and deprived Christians of their right to worship in parts of Asia.
“We must never cease to do good, even when it is difficult and demanding, and when we endure acts of intolerance, if not genuine persecution,” he said.