At 12:15pm today, in the Sala Clementina at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in Audience the Executives of the Italian National Confederation of Farmers on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the foundation of their Confederation.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning.
I welcome you on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the foundation of the National Conference of Farmers. I thank your President for the kind words which he addressed to me in your name, and I extend my greetings to the National Ecclesiastical Council and to the regional Councils who are represented here, a sign of the special attention that the Church pays to your activities.
The name farmers refers to cultivating, which is a typical and fundamental human activity. The work of agriculture in fact involves welcoming the precious gift of the earth which comes from God, but it is also important to enhance the value of work, equally valuable for men and for women called to respond with bravery and creativity to the call for man to cultivate and keep the land (cf Gen 2:15). The verb to cultivate reminds us of the care that the farmer pays to the land because it bears fruit which should be shared: how much passion, what attention, what dedication is given to all this! You create a family relationship with the land, and the land becomes sister earth.
In truth, there would be no humanity without the cultivation of the earth, life would not be worth living without the food that is produced by men and women on every continent. Farmers therefore have a central role to play.
The work of those who cultivate the earth, who generously dedicate their time and energy, is truly a vocation. It merits being recognized and adequately valued, even in concrete political and economic choices. It's a matter of eliminating the obstacles which penalize such a precious activity and often make it look unappetizing to new generations, even though the statistics show a growth in the number of students in schools and colleges of agriculture, which might suggest an increase in jobs in this sector. At the same time, we must pay attention to the already too-widespread diversion of land once used for agriculture to other uses which seem to be more profitable options (cf Message for the Day of Thanksgiving, November 9, 2014). Even in this domain, the God of money reigns! And like people who have no feelings, they sell the family, they sell mothers, for here is the temptation to sell mother earth.
This reflection on the centrality of agricultural work points our attention to two critical areas: the first is that of poverty and hunger, which still unfortunately is a reality for the vast majority of humanity. The Second Vatican Council recalled the universal destination of the goods of the earth (cf Pastoral Constitution, Gaudium et spes, 69), but in truth, many economic systems exclusively exclude many individuals from benefitting from these goods. Absolutizing market rules, a culture of waste and of choices which in the case of food have unacceptable, and other factors cause misery and suffering for many families. The system of production and distribution of food needs to be rethought. Like our grandparents taught us, if there is bread, everything is ok! I remember that, as a child, when the bread fell off the table, we would take it in our hands and kiss it before bringing it back to the table. Bread has a part to play in the sacredness of human life, and therefore, it should not be treated as a mere commodity (cf. Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii gaudium, 52-60).
But - coming to the second critical area - equally important is the memory that in the book of Genesis, chapter 2, verse 15, we hear the call for humanity no only to cultivate the earth, but also to care for it. These two things are closely linked: every farmer knows very well how difficult it has become to work the earth in a time of accelerated climate change and of extreme weather which seems to be becoming a more common occurrence. How can we continue producing good food for the life of all people when the climactic stability is in danger, when the air, the water and the soil itself are losing their purity because of pollution? In truth, we realize the importance of prompt actions aimed at caring for creation; in truth, it is an urgent matter that all nations recommit their efforts to working together toward this fundamental goal.
The challenge is: how to make agriculture environmentally friendly? How to make sure that while we farm the land, we also care for it? This is the only way, in fact, that future generations will be able to continue living on the land and cultivating it.
Faced with these questions, I would like to extend an invitation and a suggestion. The invitation is to rediscover a love for the earth as mother - as Saint Francis would say - from which we were derived and to which we must constantly return. From this point of reference we also find the suggestion: care for the earth, enter into an alliance with it, so that it can continue to be, as God intended it, a font of life for the entire human family. This goes against the exploitation of the earth, as though it had no relationship with us at all - no longer our mother - as though it were something which could be allowed to weaken, to be abandoned because it is no longer good for anything.
It is the story of this alliance that your tradition continues every day: the story of the human face of social agriculture, made through solid life-giving relationships between humanity and the earth: vital relationships: the earth gives us its fruit but it also has a value for us: the land preserves our health, the land is our sister and our mother who cares for our health. Inspired by ethics, which are the motivation and sustenance for your work in the light of Catholic social doctrine, beginning with the work of your founder Coldiretti and continuing even today in the Church, your continued collaboration bears much good fruit for the entire Italian society.
Dear friends, I hope that your work to cultivate and to care for the earth will continue to be adequately considered and valued; and I invite you to always give prime importance to the ethical demands with which Christians have always faced the problems and challenges of your activities.
Please, I ask you to pray for me and with all my heart, I give you my blessing.
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
to the Executives of the Italian National
Confederation of Farmers
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning.
I welcome you on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the foundation of the National Conference of Farmers. I thank your President for the kind words which he addressed to me in your name, and I extend my greetings to the National Ecclesiastical Council and to the regional Councils who are represented here, a sign of the special attention that the Church pays to your activities.
The name farmers refers to cultivating, which is a typical and fundamental human activity. The work of agriculture in fact involves welcoming the precious gift of the earth which comes from God, but it is also important to enhance the value of work, equally valuable for men and for women called to respond with bravery and creativity to the call for man to cultivate and keep the land (cf Gen 2:15). The verb to cultivate reminds us of the care that the farmer pays to the land because it bears fruit which should be shared: how much passion, what attention, what dedication is given to all this! You create a family relationship with the land, and the land becomes sister earth.
In truth, there would be no humanity without the cultivation of the earth, life would not be worth living without the food that is produced by men and women on every continent. Farmers therefore have a central role to play.
The work of those who cultivate the earth, who generously dedicate their time and energy, is truly a vocation. It merits being recognized and adequately valued, even in concrete political and economic choices. It's a matter of eliminating the obstacles which penalize such a precious activity and often make it look unappetizing to new generations, even though the statistics show a growth in the number of students in schools and colleges of agriculture, which might suggest an increase in jobs in this sector. At the same time, we must pay attention to the already too-widespread diversion of land once used for agriculture to other uses which seem to be more profitable options (cf Message for the Day of Thanksgiving, November 9, 2014). Even in this domain, the God of money reigns! And like people who have no feelings, they sell the family, they sell mothers, for here is the temptation to sell mother earth.
This reflection on the centrality of agricultural work points our attention to two critical areas: the first is that of poverty and hunger, which still unfortunately is a reality for the vast majority of humanity. The Second Vatican Council recalled the universal destination of the goods of the earth (cf Pastoral Constitution, Gaudium et spes, 69), but in truth, many economic systems exclusively exclude many individuals from benefitting from these goods. Absolutizing market rules, a culture of waste and of choices which in the case of food have unacceptable, and other factors cause misery and suffering for many families. The system of production and distribution of food needs to be rethought. Like our grandparents taught us, if there is bread, everything is ok! I remember that, as a child, when the bread fell off the table, we would take it in our hands and kiss it before bringing it back to the table. Bread has a part to play in the sacredness of human life, and therefore, it should not be treated as a mere commodity (cf. Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii gaudium, 52-60).
But - coming to the second critical area - equally important is the memory that in the book of Genesis, chapter 2, verse 15, we hear the call for humanity no only to cultivate the earth, but also to care for it. These two things are closely linked: every farmer knows very well how difficult it has become to work the earth in a time of accelerated climate change and of extreme weather which seems to be becoming a more common occurrence. How can we continue producing good food for the life of all people when the climactic stability is in danger, when the air, the water and the soil itself are losing their purity because of pollution? In truth, we realize the importance of prompt actions aimed at caring for creation; in truth, it is an urgent matter that all nations recommit their efforts to working together toward this fundamental goal.
The challenge is: how to make agriculture environmentally friendly? How to make sure that while we farm the land, we also care for it? This is the only way, in fact, that future generations will be able to continue living on the land and cultivating it.
Faced with these questions, I would like to extend an invitation and a suggestion. The invitation is to rediscover a love for the earth as mother - as Saint Francis would say - from which we were derived and to which we must constantly return. From this point of reference we also find the suggestion: care for the earth, enter into an alliance with it, so that it can continue to be, as God intended it, a font of life for the entire human family. This goes against the exploitation of the earth, as though it had no relationship with us at all - no longer our mother - as though it were something which could be allowed to weaken, to be abandoned because it is no longer good for anything.
It is the story of this alliance that your tradition continues every day: the story of the human face of social agriculture, made through solid life-giving relationships between humanity and the earth: vital relationships: the earth gives us its fruit but it also has a value for us: the land preserves our health, the land is our sister and our mother who cares for our health. Inspired by ethics, which are the motivation and sustenance for your work in the light of Catholic social doctrine, beginning with the work of your founder Coldiretti and continuing even today in the Church, your continued collaboration bears much good fruit for the entire Italian society.
Dear friends, I hope that your work to cultivate and to care for the earth will continue to be adequately considered and valued; and I invite you to always give prime importance to the ethical demands with which Christians have always faced the problems and challenges of your activities.
Please, I ask you to pray for me and with all my heart, I give you my blessing.
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