Promoting Values, Defending Life at the UN : Holy See’s Observer

(July 26, 2011) A major challenge for the Holy See's Mission to the United nations is to promote crucial ethical, moral, and religious values in an environment that underestimates their significance, said Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, the permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York. He said this in the context of the two-day high-level meeting on youth, which is under way at the United Nations in New York as part of the International Year of Youth. The meeting, which ends on Tuesday, has as its overarching theme "Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding."
In an interview to Zenit, the archbishop stated that the youth has always been of great importance for the Holy See and the Catholic Church. The youth are the future of the Church, of a nation, of a society, of the entire humanity. I always insist, he said, that we have to invest heavily in the youth. By doing so, we are ensuring a future full of promise that will help us to continue to hope. Only the youth can do that, so their formation and the encouragement we give to the youth is of extreme importance for the Church.
Commenting on what is missing at the present conference on the youth at the United Nations, he said that they are not focusing very much on the real values that the young people must have. In bringing them to dialogue with the nations and cultures and religions, they need to be told beforehand what are the real values they should be standing for and using as a compass for their future.