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Pastoral letter calls for solidarity with those in need
Photo courtesy Food Banks Mississauga
November 25, 2025
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Photo courtesy St. Michael’s Choir School
It’s undeniable: food security is the fastest growing issue of grave concern in Canada.
And the numbers back it up. Food Banks Canada’s 2025 Hunger Count snapshot revealed there were nearly 2.2 million visits to food banks across the country in March alone, the highest number in history.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (CCCB) Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace is striving to chart a promising path forward with its release of a pastoral letter on Nov. 16, the World Day of the Poor. Our Daily Bread: Food Security and the Call to Solidarity centres on the themes of solidarity, harmony and harvest. The intent is that Canadian Catholics, by reflecting on these ideas, will learn to live in solidarity with those in need and help ensure God’s gift of food reaches the hungry.
Montreal Archbishop Christian Lepine, chairman of the episcopal commission, told The Catholic Register that considering “solidarity is a classic (principle) and very familiar to Christians,” it was natural to accentuate this moral value in the letter.
Specific actions Catholics can take, per the document, to exemplify solidarity with those experiencing food insecurity could include “simplifying our food purchases or consumption and reducing food waste so that others may eat,” or perhaps favouring “locally grown produce rather than more exotic fruits and vegetables.”
In terms of advancing solidarity through government policy, the CCCB is advocating for proposals that “assure a just living wage to afford the increased cost of food, not forgetting the vital necessity for the farmers, fishers and others who produce the food.”
The letter also touted that peace and care for the environment will improve the global hunger landscape.
Regarding harmony, Lepine said the bishops encourage every member of the Canadian Catholic community to remember “we all need to be together in our common home.” And, Lepine added, we must “be conscious of the whole to work in justice, solidarity and harmony in the sense of the global vision of the world and the needs of everyone everywhere.”
Canada’s bishops noted in Our Daily Bread that signs of harmonization are taking shape as “we consider it a sign of hope that many urban and rural people today desire to live in greater harmony with the land given to us by our Creator.” The popularization of gardens is considered a manifestation of this desire to draw towards communion with the land God created.
As for suggestions to effectuate even greater harmony, the episcopal commission echoed a 2023 statement from Caritas Internationalis, calling for “sustainable agriculture and food production, reduce food waste and support local food systems.”
When contemplating harvest, Lepine called on all to be respectful and grateful to the feeders of the world.
“There was a time, a couple of centuries ago, when (about) 80 per cent of the population lived in the countryside, and now (approximately) 80 per cent of the population lives in big cities,” said Lepine. “It's strange that so many need to be nourished by so few people — 20 per cent of the people is nourishing the whole of the world.”
Though acknowledging advancements have been made in distributing the bounties of harvest, Our Daily Bread declared it “vital that governments renew their efforts nationally and internationally to develop more permanent and resilient systems of distribution of the great harvest that God our Creator so generously provides.”
Lepine calls for Catholics to exhibit gratitude for the Lord by cherishing the grace before mealtime.
“Grace helps us to see that when we eat, it's a gift, it's a blessing,” said Lepine, “and it's a gift that we want to share with the whole Earth.”
The Montreal archbishop also advocates for a widespread recommitment to fasting.
“To be in the spirit of fasting means never forgetting that every day there are people who suffer from hunger,” said Lepine. “The Catholic tradition is fasting every Friday. So, if we fast once a week, it helps us not to forget that hunger exists, and we need to be conscious about it and open to live in solidarity in that context.”
Read Our Daily Bread: Food Security and the Call to Solidarity online.
(Amundson is an associate editor and writer for The Catholic Register.)
A version of this story appeared in the November 30, 2025, issue of The Catholic Registerwith the headline "Bishops offer answers for food insecurity".
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