Ambassador Glendon Reflects on Pope Benedict's US Visit and Address to UN General
Assembly
(19 Apr 09 - RV) This weekend marks the first anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s address
to the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, one of the focal points
of his Apostolic voyage to the United States a year ago this month. To mark the anniversary,
the Holy See held a seminar at the UN to reflect on the Pope’s remarks one year on.
The Former US Ambassador to the Holy See and current President of the Pontifical Academy
for Social Sciences, Prof. mary Ann Glendon spoke with Tracey McClure about the enduring
impact of the Pope visit and his UN address…
HEG: I think the expression that
stays in my mind is a visual image: the unforgettable, colourful ceremony on the South
Lawn of the White House, and what it symbolized, and the sense of excitement that
everyone had when the President spoke to the Pope in terms that made Catholics feel
very proud to be Catholic, and when the Pope spoke to the President in terms that
made Catholics feel very proud to be American, and Americans very proud to be Americans
– it really was an extraordinary exchange – some people compared it to a duet in an
opera, and it was quite, I think – remember the context where Catholics in the United
States were feeling a little dispirited about a lot of things: church closings and
the tremendous cost of damages or settling sex abuse claims, and the Pope came and
made people feel good again, and hopeful.
TMcC: one of the highlights of
that visit to the US was, of course, the Pope’s discourse to the United Nations. In
its seminar at the UN this month, how did the Holy See recall the Pope’s speech?
HEG:
There was a great deal of discussion of the Pope’s praise of the human rights ideas
in the Universal Declaration [of Human Rights] and in the UN Charter, of the Pope’s
very pointed warnings about how human rights ideascan be deconstructed, hijacked and
distorted. That was a good part of our discussion. Another part of our discussion
had to do with the duty to protect, which the Pope discussed – keep in mind, we all
know how Pope Benedict compresses very complex ideas into a few words, and so this
notion of duty to protect bristles there, begging for, as they say, ‘unpacking’, and
there was a good deal of discussion about, well, who, exactly, implements this duty
to protect, and how does that fit with the doctrine of Subsidiarity. What was impressive
to me was that the Holy See’s voice in the UN is so respected, and it was such a sign
of that respect, that not only did they pack the hall when the Pope came a year ago,
and give him a rousing standing ovation at the end, but they came back a year later
to ponder and ask questions about what he had said.