Pope Leo XIV on Monday criticised what he described as the “progressive bureaucratisation of solidarity” that slows down humanitarian assistance to hungry populations, while weapons continue to circulate with ease and intensify global conflicts.
The pontiff made the remarks during a visit to the headquarters of the World Food Programme in Rome, where he urged the international community to step up funding and remove barriers preventing aid from reaching vulnerable communities.
He called for greater global commitment to tackling hunger and its underlying causes, warning that humanitarian issues are often sidelined despite widespread public declarations of concern.
“It is precisely within the gap between acknowledgement in principle and prioritisation in practice that we witness the progressive bureaucratisation of solidarity alongside the quiet commodification of human life,” Leo said.
He argued that humanitarian operations are increasingly slowed by administrative processes, while access to basic necessities such as food is frequently shaped by economic and strategic interests.
“On the other hand, access to essential goods, including food, is too often influenced by economic or strategic considerations,” he said.
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According to him, this imbalance renders many vulnerable people unseen and ignored.
“As a result, those who do not generate quantifiable value risk becoming invisible,” he added.
Pope Leo XIV further lamented that while humanitarian programmes face mounting restrictions, arms continue to flow without similar obstacles.
“In effect, conflicts are ‘fed’ more readily than people are nourished,” revealing “a fundamental imbalance in political and moral priorities,” Leo said.
The US-born leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics called on governments and global institutions to expand support for organisations working to combat hunger, including the World Food Programme, which assisted about 121 million people in 2025.
The WFP has reported increasing financial strain due to significant funding cuts from Europe and the United States in recent years.
These reductions have come at a time when global humanitarian needs are rising, driven in part by ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, which have further complicated logistics and increased the cost of delivering food aid across multiple regions.