The Holy See

APOSTOLIC JOURNEY
TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
AND VISIT TO THE UNITED NATIONS
ORGANIZATION HEADQUARTERS

MEETING WITH THE MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

OF THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI*

New York
Friday, 18 April 2008

Mr President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

As I begin my address to this Assembly, I would like first of all to express to you, Mr President, my
sincere gratitude for your kind words. My thanks go also to the Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-
moon, for inviting me to visit the headquarters of this Organization and for the welcome that he
has extended to me. I greet the Ambassadors and Diplomats from the Member States, and all
those present. Through you, I greet the peoples who are represented here. They look to this
institution to carry forward the founding inspiration to establish a “centre for harmonizing the
actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends” of peace and development (cf. Charter
of the United Nations, article 1.2-1.4). As Pope John Paul II expressed it in 1995, the Organization
should be “a moral centre where all the nations of the world feel at home and develop a shared
awareness of being, as it were, a ‘family of nations’” (Address to the General Assembly of the
United Nations on the 50th Anniversary of its Foundation, New York, 5 October 1995, 14).

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
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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. As my predecessors Paul VI and John Paul II have
observed from this very podium, all this is something that the Catholic Church and the Holy See
follow attentively and with interest, seeing in your activity an example of how issues and conflicts
concerning the world community can be subject to common regulation. The United Nations
embodies the aspiration for a “greater degree of international ordering” (John Paul II, Sollicitudo
Rei Socialis, 43), inspired and governed by the principle of subsidiarity, and therefore capable of
responding to the demands of the human family through binding international rules and through
structures capable of harmonizing the day-to-day unfolding of the lives of peoples. This is all the
more necessary at a time when we experience the obvious paradox 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 interventions in the form of collective action by the international
community.

Indeed, 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 to show a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the law, and promoting
solidarity with the weakest regions of the planet. I am thinking especially of those countries in
Africa and other parts of the world which remain on the margins of authentic integral development,
and are therefore at risk of experiencing only the negative effects of globalization. In the context of
international relations, it is necessary to recognize the higher role played by rules and structures
that are intrinsically ordered to promote the common good, and therefore to safeguard human
freedom. These regulations do not limit freedom. On the contrary, they promote it when they
prohibit behaviour and actions which work against the common good, curb its effective exercise
and hence compromise the dignity of every human person. In the name of freedom, there has to
be a correlation between rights and duties, by which every person is called to assume
responsibility for his or her choices, made as a consequence of entering into relations with others.
Here our thoughts turn also to the way the results of scientific research and technological
advances have sometimes been applied. Notwithstanding the enormous benefits that humanity
can gain, some instances of this represent a clear violation of the order of creation, to the point
where not only is the sacred character of life contradicted, but the human person and the family
are robbed of their natural identity. Likewise, international action to preserve the environment and
to protect various forms of life on earth must not only guarantee a rational use of technology and
science, but must also rediscover the authentic image of creation. This never requires a choice to
be made between science and ethics: rather it is a question of adopting a scientific method that is
truly respectful of ethical imperatives.

Recognition of the unity of the human family, and attention to the innate dignity of every man and
woman, today find renewed emphasis in the principle of the responsibility to protect. This has only
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recently been defined, but it was already present implicitly at the origins of the United Nations, and
is now increasingly characteristic of its activity. Every State has the primary duty to protect its own
population from grave and sustained violations of human rights, as well as from the consequences
of humanitarian crises, whether natural or man-made. If States are unable to guarantee such
protection, the international community must intervene with the juridical means provided in the
United Nations Charter and in other international instruments. The action of the international
community and its institutions, provided that it respects the principles undergirding the
international order, should never be interpreted as an unwarranted imposition or a limitation of
sovereignty. On the contrary, it is indifference or failure to intervene that do the real damage. What
is needed is a deeper search for ways of pre-empting and managing conflicts by exploring every
possible diplomatic avenue, and giving attention and encouragement to even the faintest sign of
dialogue or desire for reconciliation.

The principle of “responsibility to protect” was considered by the ancient ius gentium as the
foundation of every action taken by those in government with regard to the governed: at the time
when the concept of national sovereign States was first developing, the Dominican Friar Francisco
de Vitoria, rightly considered as a precursor of the idea of the United Nations, described this
responsibility as an aspect of natural reason shared by all nations, and the result of an
international order whose task it was to regulate relations between peoples. Now, as then, this
principle has to invoke the idea of the person as image of the Creator, the desire for the absolute
and the essence of freedom. The founding of the United Nations, as we know, coincided with the
profound upheavals that humanity experienced when reference to the meaning of transcendence
and natural reason was abandoned, and in consequence, freedom and human dignity were
grossly violated. When this happens, it threatens the objective foundations of the values inspiring
and governing the international order and it undermines the cogent and inviolable principles
formulated and consolidated by the United Nations. When faced with new and insistent
challenges, it is a mistake to fall back on a pragmatic approach, limited to determining “common
ground”, minimal in content and weak in its effect.

This reference to human dignity, which is the foundation and goal of the responsibility to protect,
leads us to the theme we are specifically focusing upon this year, which marks the sixtieth
anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document was the outcome of a
convergence of different religious and cultural traditions, all of them motivated by the common
desire to place the human person at the heart of institutions, laws and the workings of society, and
to consider the human person essential for the world of culture, religion and science. Human rights
are increasingly being presented as the common language and the ethical substratum of
international relations. At the same time, the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of
human rights all serve as guarantees safeguarding human dignity. It is evident, though, that the
rights recognized and expounded in the Declaration apply to everyone by virtue of the common
origin of the person, who remains the high-point of God’s creative design for the world and for
history. They are based on the natural law inscribed on human hearts and present in different
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cultures and civilizations. Removing human rights from this context would mean restricting their
range and yielding to a relativistic conception, according to which the meaning and interpretation
of rights could vary and their universality would be denied in the name of different cultural, political,
social and even religious outlooks. This great variety of viewpoints must not be allowed to obscure
the fact that not only rights are universal, but so too is the human person, the subject of those
rights.

The life of the community, both domestically and internationally, clearly demonstrates that respect
for rights, and the guarantees that follow from them, are measures of the common good that serve
to evaluate the relationship between justice and injustice, development and poverty, security and
conflict. 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. Today, though, efforts
need to be redoubled in the face of pressure to reinterpret the foundations of the Declaration and
to compromise its inner unity so as to facilitate a move away from the protection of human dignity
towards the satisfaction of simple interests, often particular interests. The Declaration was adopted
as a “common standard of achievement” (Preamble) and cannot be applied piecemeal, according
to trends or selective choices that merely run the risk of contradicting the unity of the human
person and thus the indivisibility of human rights.

Experience shows that legality often prevails over justice when the insistence upon rights makes
them appear as the exclusive result of legislative enactments or normative decisions taken by the
various agencies of those in power. When presented purely in terms of legality, rights risk
becoming weak propositions divorced from the ethical and rational dimension which is their
foundation and their goal. The Universal Declaration, rather, has reinforced the conviction that
respect for human rights is principally rooted in unchanging justice, on which the binding force of
international proclamations is also based. This aspect is often overlooked when the attempt is
made to deprive rights of their true function in the name of a narrowly utilitarian perspective. Since
rights and the resulting duties follow naturally from human interaction, it is easy to forget that they
are the fruit of a commonly held sense of justice built primarily upon solidarity among the members
of society, and hence valid at all times and for all peoples. This intuition was expressed as early as
the fifth century by Augustine of Hippo, one of the masters of our intellectual heritage. He taught
that the saying: Do not do to others what you would not want done to you “cannot in any way vary
according to the different understandings that have arisen in the world” (De Doctrina Christiana, III,
14). Human rights, then, must be respected as an expression of justice, and not merely because
they are enforceable through the will of the legislators.
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Ladies and Gentlemen,

As history proceeds, new situations arise, and the attempt is made to link them to new rights.
Discernment, that is, the capacity to distinguish good from evil, becomes even more essential in
the context of demands that concern the very lives and conduct of persons, communities and
peoples. In tackling the theme of rights, since important situations and profound realities are
involved, discernment is both an indispensable and a fruitful virtue.

Discernment, then, shows that entrusting exclusively to individual States, with their laws and
institutions, the final responsibility to meet the aspirations of persons, communities and entire
peoples, can sometimes have consequences that exclude the possibility of a social order
respectful of the dignity and rights of the person. On the other hand, a vision of life firmly anchored
in the religious dimension can help to achieve this, since recognition of the transcendent value of
every man and woman favours conversion of heart, which then leads to a commitment to resist
violence, terrorism and war, and to promote justice and peace. This also provides the proper
context for the inter-religious dialogue that the United Nations is called to support, just as it
supports dialogue in other areas of human activity. Dialogue should be recognized as the means
by which the various components of society can articulate their point of view and build consensus
around the truth concerning particular values or goals. It pertains to the nature of religions, freely
practised, that they can autonomously conduct a dialogue of thought and life. If at this level, too,
the religious sphere is kept separate from political action, then great benefits ensue for individuals
and communities. On the other hand, the United Nations can count on the results of dialogue
between religions, and can draw fruit from the willingness of believers to place their experiences at
the service of the common good. Their task is to propose a vision of faith not in terms of
intolerance, discrimination and conflict, but in terms of complete respect for truth, coexistence,
rights, and reconciliation.

Human rights, of course, must include the right to religious freedom, understood as the expression
of a dimension that is at once individual and communitarian – a vision that brings out the unity of
the person while clearly distinguishing between the dimension of the citizen and that of the
believer. The activity of the United Nations in recent years has ensured that public debate gives
space to viewpoints inspired by a religious vision in all its dimensions, including ritual, worship,
education, dissemination of information and the freedom to profess and choose religion. It is
inconceivable, then, that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves – their faith – in
order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights.
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. Indeed, they actually do so, for example through their
influential and generous involvement in a vast network of initiatives which extend from
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Universities, scientific institutions and schools to health care agencies and charitable organizations
in the service of the poorest and most marginalized. Refusal to recognize the contribution to
society that is rooted in the religious dimension and in the quest for the Absolute – by its nature,
expressing communion between persons – would effectively privilege an individualistic approach,
and would fragment the unity of the person.

My presence at this Assembly is a sign of esteem for the United Nations, and it is intended to
express the hope that the Organization will increasingly serve as a sign of unity between States
and an instrument of service to the entire human family. It also demonstrates the willingness of the
Catholic Church to offer her proper contribution to building international relations in a way that
allows every person and every people to feel they can make a difference. In a manner that is
consistent with her contribution in the ethical and moral sphere and the free activity of her faithful,
the Church also works for the realization of these goals through the international activity of the
Holy See. Indeed, the Holy See has always had a place at the assemblies of the Nations, thereby
manifesting its specific character as a subject in the international domain. As the United Nations
recently confirmed, the Holy See thereby makes its contribution according to the dispositions of
international law, helps to define that law, and makes appeal to it.

The United Nations remains a privileged setting in which the Church is committed to contributing
her experience “of humanity”, developed over the centuries among peoples of every race and
culture, and placing it at the disposal of all members of the international community. This
experience and activity, directed towards attaining freedom for every believer, seeks also to
increase the protection given to the rights of the person. Those rights are grounded and shaped by
the transcendent nature of the person, which permits men and women to pursue their journey of
faith and their search for God in this world. Recognition of this dimension must be strengthened if
we are to sustain humanity’s hope for a better world and if we are to create the conditions for
peace, development, cooperation, and guarantee of rights for future generations.

In my recent Encyclical, Spe Salvi, I indicated that “every generation has the task of engaging
anew in the arduous search for the right way to order human affairs” (no. 25). For Christians, this
task is motivated by the hope drawn from the saving work of Jesus Christ. That is why the Church
is happy to be associated with the activity of this distinguished Organization, charged with the
responsibility of promoting peace and good will throughout the earth. Dear Friends, I thank you for
this opportunity to address you today, and I promise you of the support of my prayers as you
pursue your noble task.

Before I take my leave from this distinguished Assembly, I should like to offer my greetings, in the
official languages, to all the Nations here represented.

Peace and Prosperity with God’s help!

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Paix et prospérité, avec l’aide de Dieu!

Paz y prosperidad con la ayuda de Dios!

‫!ِ هللا ِ نْوَعب ٌراَهِدْزإَو ٌمالَس‬

因著天主的幫助願大家 得享平安和繁榮 !

Мира и благоденствия с помощью Боҗией!

Thank you very much.

*L'Osservatore Romano. Weekly Edition in English n°17 p. 12, 13.

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