Pope Urges Sharing Food With Hungry : Asks Common Market Nations to Be More Generous in Africa

LUXEMBOURG —  Pope John Paul II urged the 10-nation European Community today to be more generous in sharing its vast food surpluses with people living in areas where “hunger is murderous.”

“Many people are struck by the contrast between the deprivation of people lacking food and the accumulation of food surpluses in Europe,” he said during a meeting with officials of the European trade bloc, which has many of its institutions in Luxembourg.

The pontiff flew to Luxembourg from the Netherlands, where his visit was met by widespread anti-papal protests.

In a meeting with the sick and handicapped at Luxembourg Cathedral, which recently was damaged by fire, he said he had come “to rekindle the flame of faith” in the face of what he called a “demoralization” of society “that is draining our lifeblood.”

Church Attendance Falls

Although nominally 95% Catholic, Luxembourg is going through a steep decline in church attendance. Officials said only about one person in four from the population of 365,000 regularly attends church.

At the cathedral, the Pope spoke of the “plague of war” and “the horrific images of hunger which come daily before our eyes from many regions of the world.”

Then at the European Community meeting, he asked if everything possible had been done to help “an important part of humanity, notably in Africa, where hunger is murderous, where the soil is impoverished and where states are hindered by their external debt and have little capacity for productive investment.”

“Could not more be done?” the Pope asked. “Is there the will to ensure the fruits of the earth are sent to those who have an absolute need?”

Enough Has Been Said

As he was departing Holland, the Pope referred to the reception he received there and said, “Public opinion has said enough about the problems between Rome and the church in the Netherlands”--problems concerning sexual permissiveness and the role of women in the church.

In one of his toughest speeches against permissiveness, John Paul said Tuesday that moral laws laid down by the Bible “remain the standard for the church for all time.” (Story, Page 6.)