“We’re not just there kind of to feed people as an objective, but to see, to look into their eyes and understand, you know that we really are sisters and brothers with them – have a soul relationship with them too, which I think a highlight of what Pope Francis is trying to say. He said just don’t look at them as objectives, you know objectively as objects that we’re going to help in some sort of a superior way. But the responsibility we have to relate and to share and to really look and appreciate them.”
Bishop Richard Pates is the ninth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa. At the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, he has been a member of the Committee on Education, Committee on Evangelization, Committee on World Mission, Committee on Pastoral Practices, and Committee on Women in Society and in the Church.
He is also a board member of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, Episcopal Advisory Board for the Cause for Beatification of the Servant of God, Board of Regents, Conception Seminary, Conception, Mo., and Bread for the World.
If you’d like to hear more of Bishop Pates’ thoughts on why Christians should work toward ending hunger, watch a brief video interview of him. And when you’re done, make sure to sign our Pledge to End Hunger on the same page as the video.
