Three of the world's biggest Christian organizations have joined in Rome for an unprecedented move: a unified statement on the right to food and nutrition.

The World Council of Churches (WCC), Caritas Internationalis, and World Vision International launched their Joint Faith Statement on Oct. 22 during Jubilee Year 2025 celebrations.

"As we engage in this dialogue of faith leaders and communities addressing the root causes of hunger and global nutrition challenges, we recognize the vital role of faith-based resources in confronting the systemic drivers of hunger," said Rev. Kenneth Mtata, WCC programme director for Life, Justice, and Peace.

"Our aim is to build a strong coalition of faith actors to influence policy, empower local communities, and draw upon our shared theological wisdom and enabling legal instruments.

"Together, we can make a real difference for the more than 673 million people who currently live with chronic hunger."

The accord marks the first time these three global Christian bodies have united on food security.

Faith leaders, UN officials, and policy experts had gathered at the headquarters of Caritas Internationalis, a conference of 162 Catholic relief organizations to address a moral and ethical crisis: hunger persists in a world of unprecedented wealth.

Michael Fakhri, United Nations special rapporteur on the Right to Food, welcomed the statement as a first-of-its-kind collaboration, according to the WCC report.

          - RIGHT TO NUTRITIOUS FOOD 

Access to nutritious food is a right, not charity, he stressed. Fakhri praised the statement's attention to how conflict and war affect food security, particularly in Sudan and Palestine.

Arif Husain, chief economist at the World Food Programme, backed the statement's statistics but pointed to a harsher truth.

"Today we have $450 trillion of wealth in our world but 14 million people may die of hunger, out of which five million are children," said Husain. "This is morally and ethically unacceptable."

Senior representatives from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Food Programme, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Holy See, Rome-based government missions, and Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty gathered for a high-level reception.

The dinner offered space for informal conversations and relationship-building between governments, faith groups, and UN agencies working on food justice.

Represented by Juan Echanove, team lead of Right to Food, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations welcomed the faith leaders' statement.

He praised faith-based organisations for their commitment to advancing the right to adequate food. At the reception, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations officials pledged continued collaboration with faith actors to strengthen human rights-based policies and governance frameworks.

For Musamba Mubanga-Mtonga, Senior Advocacy Officer for Food Security and Climate Change at Caritas Internationalis, said that global statistics tell a story of moral failure.

"The earth's abundance was entrusted to all, not a privileged few. Ending hunger demands that we choose compassion over conflict, solidarity over indifference, and shared humanity over misplaced priorities," said Mubanga-Mtonga.

"True justice requires freeing communities from the chains of debt that perpetuate hunger and poverty—a call that the Jubilee Year powerfully reminds us of: to forgive debts, restore dignity, and build a world where all can thrive."

Kai Hutans said, "As World Vision, we stand with faith leaders around the world in affirming that hunger in a world of abundance is a moral failure, not an inevitability.

"Every child has the right to adequate and nutritious food, and our collective faith compels us to act so that no child goes to bed hungry," said the World Vision Internationla partnership leader,