Pope Benedict Addresses United Nations General Assembly

(18 Apr 08 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI on Friday addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. Emer McCarthy has all the details...

It is the 4^th Papal visit to the United Nations following those of Paul VI in 1965 and John Paul II in 1979 and 1995.
On his arrival the Holy Father was greeted personally by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who said the mission of the Pope and the mission of the United nations converge:
Pope Benedict XVI then delivered a key note address to the UN General Assembly, in French and English, in which he said the United Nations embodies the aspiration for a “greater degree of international ordering”.
“Through the United Nations, States have established universal objectives which, even if they do not coincide with the total common good of the human family, undoubtedly represent a fundamental part of that good. The founding principles of the Organization – the desire for peace, the quest for justice, respect for the dignity of the person, humanitarian cooperation and assistance – express the just aspirations of the human spirit, and constitute the ideals which should underpin international relations”.
During his address Pope Benedict also highlighted the 60th anniversary of the declaration of human rights. He said Human rights guarantee the safeguarding of Human Dignity:
“The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and for increasing security. Indeed, the victims of hardship and despair, whose human dignity is violated with impunity, become easy prey to the call to violence, and they can then become violators of peace. The common good that human rights help to accomplish cannot, however, be attained merely by applying correct procedures, nor even less by achieving a balance between competing rights. The merit of the Universal Declaration is that it has enabled different cultures, juridical expressions and institutional models to converge around a fundamental nucleus of values, and hence of rights”.
Pope Benedict also addressed religious freedom, which he said cannot just be confined to the practise of faith.
“The rights associated with religion are all the more in need of protection if they are considered to clash with a prevailing secular ideology or with majority religious positions of an exclusive nature. The full guarantee of religious liberty cannot be limited to the free exercise of worship, but has to give due consideration to the public dimension of religion, and hence to the possibility of believers playing their part in building the social order”.
Pope Benedict concluded “It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights”.