October 14, 2004
By Micael Vier B.

SAO LEOPOLDO, Brazil - Renowned Catholic writer and theologian Fray Betto, adviser to President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and coordinator of the government's "Zero Hunger" social movement said that hunger is humanity's worst misfortune.

Hunger, he said, kills 24,000 people around the world on a daily basis. It is shameful that in the XXI Century a lack of food costs more lives than war, terrorism, illness and traffic accidents combined.

The Dominican priest emphasized that while Brazil is one of the world's top five food producers malnutrition remains a problem despite the efforts of the current government. In Brazil, he said, we still struggle for animal rights not human rights.

Betto, internationally renowned for his tenacious struggle to defend human rights, said that among the major causes of the death in the world, hunger is the only one that makes a class distinction.

He spoke at the inauguration of the XXIV General Council of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession of Brazil (IECLB), in the Lutheran Church of Reloj, representing President Lula.

Betto said that everyone present was a child of a biological lottery. Fray Betto began his studies in theology in Sao Leopoldo, a city where he was also imprisoned during the military dictatorship.

Betto said that the famous Zero Hunger program spearheaded by President Lula is a public policy of social inclusion, capable of multiplying the loaves and the fish. He emphasized that during Brazil's Republican history only two presidents have concerned themselves with misery: Lula and NIilo Pecanha, vice president who assumed the presidency between June 1909 and September 1910 after the death of President Moreira Penna.

"Our major current objective is to ensure that the dignity of our all fellow men (in Brazil) because this dignity is sacred. All human beings are a living temple of God," affirmed the presidential advisor.

Interviewed by ALC Fray Betto praised the work of different religious denominations in favor of the Zero Hunger Program. "There are Churches that are building cisterns to capture water in the Northeast or member of the Food and Nutrition Security Council who are encouraging the creation of school and family gardens among other initiatives." Regarding criticism that some major dailies have levied against the Zero Hunger Program, Betto said that the media is badly informed and concentrating its attention on the major urban centers in Brazil. "By next December, Zero Hunger will have reached 6.5 million families across the nation," he affirmed, emphasizing the broad coverage of the social assistance program.

Pastor Homero Severo Pinto preached during the IECLB General Council inaugural worship service. Severo is the first vice president of the denomination. In his homily, he emphasized that this is a special year as Protestantism commemorates 180 years of presence in Brazil.

He recalled the first immigrants and said that of 39 Germans who landed in Sao Leopoldo on July 25, 1824 33 were Evangelical-Lutherans who build communities of faith and educational spaces on these lands.

ALC News Service