By UCA News reporter, Hong Kong
HONG KONG – Cardinal Stephen Chow of Hong Kong has stressed the need to stop wasting food, saying it aligns with respecting human rights and caring for God’s creation.
The Jesuit cardinal wrote an article on the dignity of food based on his experience attending a few Christmas dinners. The article appeared in his diocesan online publication, Examiner, on Jan 3.
“I was invited to a couple of large-scale banquets in the past weeks. What I have seen was certainly regrettable,” Chow said in the article.
He said that after the first or second course, most diners started moving around, networking, leaving the food, or eating it randomly. “Much food was wasted as the servers were seen serving and removing the untouched dishes round after round.”
“Does food have rights?” just as human rights, animal rights, children’s rights, consumer rights, and patient rights, he asked.
He said that for Christians, rights are based on the reality that God is the creator of all lives, humans are made in God’s image, and their dignity comes from God’s love.
“However, we must not forget that with privilege comes responsibility. We are missioned by God to take good care of God’s Creation,” he said.
“If we solely focus on our individual rights, that will undermine not only the rights of others but also their foundational dignity, especially that of the weaker parties,” he said, adding such actions “are violations of God’s loving intention in creation.”
Chow said he says this not because of his “vegetarian diet but out of respect for life and our duty to care of our Common Home.”
“Irresponsible consumption of anything, and food in particular, will eventually hurt ourselves and the sustainability of our ecosystem,” he warned.
Such disregard will “further damage the already troubled relationships between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots,’ between humanity and the rest of God’s creation,” he said.
He wanted his people to become “more respectful and graceful to the parties with lesser voices, which must include the natural environment, of which we are just one of the constitutive parties.”
Chow also encouraged them to consider hosting parties that would allow networking activities without wasting food.
“We need creativity and some cultural changes!” he said. – UCA News
