Msgr. L. LIGUTTI

Statement at the Eight Session of the Conference of FAO*

Rome, November 1955



Many of us were privileged to hear the message of His Holiness during his most cordial audience at Castel Gandolfo. Naturally we, who know and appreciate FAO are pleased by His Holiness personal and official interest - He indeed possesses a deep knowledge of the work you carry on so nobly - and He shares with you the vision of future possibilities and tasks.

My brief message to you to-day is a cordial and admiring greeting. It is an expression of thanks and a word of congratulation. At the 10th milestone of FAO, I toast that sturdy idealist Sir John Boyd Orr - The western effectiveness of Mr. Ed. Dodd - The gentle heart and scientific mind of our beloved friend, the Director-General Dr. Cardon, and the three pillars of strength in FAO’s developing years - Mr. F. McDougall, a foundation stone, Mr. Gove Hambidge, a man of vision with a heart for the poor everywhere, and Mr. FAO itself, the springtime octogenarian M. Mayer of France.

Being among friends may I be permitted to express myself from the fullness of my heart. The work you carry on directly or indirectly possesses a very deep spiritual significance. In the opening chapters of Genesis we find the expression: "God created man from the slime of the earth and he breathed into him the breath of life".

The ultimate purpose of your efforts is to develop the full personality of the ones who are helped - through their bodies, formed from the slime of the earth, - to their spirit - the breath of God’s life. At the same time and by your very endeavors you help the helper - yourselves. That, in its totality, brings society to a higher level of mutual understanding and mutual love.

Not far from each other on the shores of Galilee’s lake are located two sacred spots. The hill upon which the Sermon on the Mount was preached and the site where the multiplication of the loaves and fishes took place. Even though your technicians, your administrators, your workers are too humble to count themselves among the pioneer missionaries of the 20th Century - they actually do fulfil that very high ideal. In this 20th Century they are the multipliers of the loaves and fishes.

The spirit of service, self-sacrifice, the cause of humanity, the practical example of democracy, are segments in your cycle of work. Even your personal conduct can hardly be separated from your official burdens and round of duties.

While I commend you, may I also suggest a duty incumbent upon all of us - to sell to the world the aims, purposes and accomplishments of FAO. And since a static existence is not a satisfactory one - the urge for dynamic progress, for new ways to meet new problems must spur you on the higher levels in wider fields.

It is my firm conviction that FAO might well lead in the attempt to exchange abundance, not merely in agricultural products, but an exchange of all abundance - the arts, the letters, music and song, and even human beings. Yes, the humble but delicate work of an Andean Indian is the fruit of his intelligence - that is his abundance to be shared by us who produce maize, grain and rice, fruits and vegetables and livestock. Let us not suppose for a moment that a material surplus of industrial and agricultural products is the only worthwhile contribution to mankind’s progress. Exchanging abundances will increase abundance, so needed, so little appreciated so poorly used.

There is one more suggestion I dare advance. It was passed on to me by a Christian Missionary to the Far East. He saw people without land ­then he came west and went south and saw land without people. In his own simple and straightforward language he said to me: "If international agreements can be drawn up for petroleum and mineral concessions, why could there not be some thought given to agricultural concessions in this last half of the 20th Century?".

I believe that within this hall there are men and women of enough acumen and experience, capable and willing to work out an acceptable scheme whereby without undue complication or interference with national sovereignties, citizenship, etc., people, without land could be united to land without people on an agricultural concession basis. By artificially keeping separate the two elements we are not only going counter to God’s evident purpose in creation, but we are causing human suffering. We are giving rise to senseless struggles and we are holding back the progress of mankind.

May FAO be the youthful 10-year old rosy-checked page who will draw aside the curtain for the dawn of a better day on the world’s stage.