the curia informs - Passio Christi

THE CURIA INFORMS
THE DAY BENEDICT CAME
TO THE HOUSE OF NATIONS
(The following article originally
appeared in the publication,
“Passionists International”, April, 2008
and recounts the visit of Pope Benedict XVI
to the United Nations,
in New York City on April 18, 2008).
“Your Holiness, welcome
to our common home”
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
Fr. Kevin Dance, C.P.
he United Nations is a secular institution,
composed of 192 States. We have six
“Tofficial languages but no official religion.
But if you ask what motivates us, many of us reply in
a language of faith. We see what we do not only as a
job, but as a mission for our work around the world —
from peace and security to development to human
rights. You have spoken of: the terrible challenge of
poverty afflicting so much of the world’s population,
and how we cannot afford indifference and self-centered
isolation; water resources and climate change as
matters of grave importance for the entire human family.
You have called for: progressive and agreed-upon
nuclear disarmament; open and sincere dialogue, both
within your Church and between religions and cultures,
in search of the good of humankind. You have
spelled out that those with greater power may not use
it to violate the rights of others, and stated that peace
is based on respect for the rights of all. You have said
the UN is ‘capable of fostering genuine dialogue and
understanding, reconciling divergent views, and
developing multilateral policies and strategies capable
of meeting the manifold challenges of our complex
and rapidly changing world’”.
So, on a spring day sparkling with brilliant sunshine
Benedict came to the house of the nations, the
United Nations, to bring a message of hope, encouragement
and challenge. “My presence at this
Assembly is a sign of esteem for the United Nations,
and it is intended to express the hope that the
Organisation will increasingly serve as a sign of unity
between States and an instrument of service to the
entire human family.” There is encouragement here
for our Passionist Family to take to heart the challenge
to engage seriously with the vision of the
United Nations.
Pope Benedict XVI and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
Benedict called world leaders to act together in
face of “a multilateral consensus that continues to be
in crisis because it is still subordinated to the decisions
of a few, whereas the world’s problems call
for… collective action by the international community.”
He named an entire agenda of work in the next
sentence: “questions of security, development goals,
reduction of local and global inequalities, protection
of the environment, of resources and of the climate,
require all international leaders to act jointly and
show a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the
law, and promoting solidarity with the weakest
regions of the planet”.
Through our work with the Commission on the
Status of Women and in the lead up process to the
Financing for Development review Conference,
Passionists International have supported the call to
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July 2008 - PIB n. 17