In his fifth address to the United Nations, Francis said we need to ensure that our institutions take action. Defending the environment and combating exclusion are actions that require “absolute respect for life in all its stages and dimensions”. No drug trafficking and to nuclear proliferation which would transform the UN into “nations united by fear and distrust”. No to “military and political interventions which are not coordinated between members of the international community”. And the Pope also sent out an appeal for Christians and all other persecuted minorities.
This was the fifth time the Pope addressed the United Nations, showing how much the Holy See believes in the importance of this institution which turns 70 this year: it must be reinforced not weakened. Francis invited members not to stop at good intentions, goal-setting and statistics: “we must avoid every temptation to fall into a declarationist nominalism which would assuage our consciences. We need to ensure that our institutions are truly effective in the struggle against all these scourges”. The Pope asked for respect for life, for negotiations to prevail, for the renunciation of nuclear weapons and for military interventions to be avoided unless under the aegis of the UN. He spoke about the baneful consequences of an irresponsible mismanagement of the global economy and renewed his appeal for Christians and other persecuted minorities.
Praise for the UN
In the presence of the world’s leaders, Francis stated that the UN is “an essential response, inasmuch as technological power, in the hands of nationalistic or falsely universalist ideologies, is capable of perpetrating tremendous atrocities. I can only reiterate the appreciation expressed by my predecessors, in reaffirming the importance which the Catholic Church attaches to this Institution and the hope which she places in its activities”. The Pope listed some positive achievements made in its 70 years of existence: “the codification and development of international law, the establishment of international norms regarding human rights, advances in humanitarian law, the resolution of numerous conflicts, operations of peace-keeping and reconciliation”. “Without all those interventions on the international level, mankind would not have been able to survive the unchecked use of its own possibilities”. Francis paid tribute to all those “men and women whose loyalty and self-sacrifice have benefitted humanity as a whole in these past seventy years”. Especially those who have lost their lives in the fight for peace. The Pope mentioned Dag Hammarskjöld, the troublesome UN secretary who sought to forestall the war in Congo and died in mysterious circumstance 54 years ago, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously in 1961, as well as “the many United Nations officials at every level who have been killed in the course of humanitarian missions, and missions of peace and reconciliation”. The Pope hoped there would be a “reform” of the United Nations “and adaptation to the times” which “is always necessary in the pursuit of the ultimate goal of granting all countries, without exception, a share in, and a genuine and equitable influence on, decision-making processes. The need for greater equity is especially true in the case of those bodies with effective executive capability, such as the Security Council, the Financial Agencies and the groups or mechanisms specifically created to deal with economic crises.” This would also help “limit every kind of abuse or usury, especially where developing countries are concerned. The International Financial Agencies are should care for the sustainable development of countries and should ensure that they are not subjected to oppressive lending systems which, far from promoting progress, subject people to mechanisms which generate greater poverty, exclusion and dependence.”
Protecting the excluded and the environment
Francis recalled that “the limitation of power is an idea implicit in the concept of law itself. To give to each his own, to cite the classic definition of justice, means that no human individual or group can consider itself absolute, permitted to bypass the dignity and the rights of other individuals or their social groupings.” Today, he observed, there are “many false rights and – at the same time – broad sectors which are vulnerable, victims of power badly exercised for example, the natural environment and the vast ranks of the excluded.” These two sectors are intimately connected and dominant political and economic relations have transformed these into fragile elements of reality. The Pope explained that “a true “right of the environment” does exist: Any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity.” Francis therefore denounces “a selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity” that “leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged”. “Economic and social exclusion is a complete denial of human fraternity and a grave offense against human rights and the environment. The poorest are those who suffer most from such offenses.”
Sustainable development
Francis expressed the need he felt to “speak out, together with all those who are seeking urgently-needed and effective solutions. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the World Summit, which opens today, is an important sign of hope. I am similarly confident that the Paris Conference on Climatic Change will secure fundamental and effective agreements.” But “solemn commitments are not enough.” “Our world demands of all government leaders a will which is effective, practical and constant, concrete steps and immediate measures for preserving and improving the natural environment and thus putting an end as quickly as possible to the phenomenon of social and economic exclusion, with its baneful consequences: human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labour, including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism and international organized crime.” “Such is the magnitude of these situations and their toll in innocent lives, that we must avoid every temptation to fall into a declarationist nominalism which would assuage our consciences. We need to ensure that our institutions are truly effective in the struggle against all these scourges.” Keeping in mind always that “beyond our plans and programmes, we are dealing with real men and women who live, struggle and suffer”.
Housing, bread and work
The poor must be allowed “to be dignified agents of their own destiny”. “This presupposes and requires the right to education – also for girls (excluded in certain places) – which is ensured first and foremost by respecting and reinforcing the primary right of the family to educate its children.” “Government leaders must do everything possible to ensure that all can have the minimum spiritual and material means needed to live in dignity and to create and support a family, which is the primary cell of any social development. In practical terms, this absolute minimum has three names: lodging, labour, and land; and one spiritual name: spiritual freedom, which includes religious freedom, the right to education and other civil rights.”
Recognising moral law
Francis spoke of “the baneful consequences of an irresponsible “mismanagement of the global economy, guided only by ambition for wealth and power” and affirms that “the defence of the environment and the fight against exclusion demand that we recognize a moral law written into human nature itself, one which includes the natural difference between man and woman and absolute respect for life in all its stages and dimensions”. “Without the recognition of certain incontestable natural ethical limits and without the immediate implementation of those pillars of integral human development, the ideal of “saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war” as the Preamble of the Charter of the United Nations states, and “promoting social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom”, risks becoming an unattainable illusion, or, even worse, idle chatter which serves as a cover for all kinds of abuse and corruption, or for carrying out an ideological colonization by the imposition of anomalous models and lifestyles which are alien to people’s identity and, in the end, irresponsible.”
No to war
“War is the negation of all rights and a dramatic assault on the environment. If we want true integral human development for all, we must work tirelessly to avoid war between nations and between peoples.” If the Charter of the United Nations is respected and applied with transparency and sincerity, and without ulterior motives, as an obligatory reference point of justice and not as a means of masking spurious intentions, peaceful results will be obtained.” “When, on the other hand, the norm is considered simply as an instrument to be used whenever it proves favourable, and to be avoided when it is not, a true Pandora’s box is opened, releasing uncontrollable forces”.
Nuclear weapons and the “nations united by fear"
The Pope talked about “the proliferation of arms, especially weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear weapons. An ethics and a law based on the threat of mutual destruction – and possibly the destruction of all mankind – are self-contradictory and an affront to the entire framework of the United Nations, which would end up as “nations united by fear and distrust”. There is urgent need to work for a world free of nuclear weapons.” Francis praised the “recent agreement reached on the nuclear question” involving Iran, “proof of the potential of political good will and of law, exercised with sincerity, patience and constancy”.
Wars without the UN and the persecution of Christians
Francis realistically observes that “hard evidence is not lacking of the negative effects of military and political interventions which are not coordinated between members of the international community”. The Pope renewed his appeal for the Middle East, North Africa and other African countries, “where Christians, together with other cultural or ethnic groups, and even members of the majority religion who have no desire to be caught up in hatred and folly, have been forced to witness the destruction of their places of worship, their cultural and religious heritage, their houses and property, and have faced the alternative either of fleeing or of paying for their adhesion to good and to peace by their own lives, or by enslavement”. “These realities should serve as a grave summons to an examination of conscience on the part of those charged with the conduct of international affairs. Not only in cases of religious or cultural persecution, but in every situation of conflict, as in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan and the Great Lakes region, real human beings take precedence over partisan interests, however legitimate the latter may be. In wars and conflicts there are individual persons, our brothers and sisters, men and women, young and old, boys and girls who weep, suffer and die. Human beings who are easily discarded when our only response is to draw up lists of problems, strategies and disagreements.” The international community needs “to do all that it can to stop and to prevent further systematic violence against ethnic and religious minorities” and to protect innocent peoples”.
Drug trafficking
Francis went on to talk about another war, the “drug trafficking war, which “is silently killing millions of people”. “A war which is taken for granted and poorly fought.” “Drug trafficking is by its very nature accompanied by trafficking in persons, money laundering, the arms trade, child exploitation and other forms of corruption. A corruption which has penetrated to different levels of social, political, military, artistic and religious life, and, in many cases, has given rise to a parallel structure which threatens the credibility of our institutions.”
Decisions that cannot be put off
“The common home of all men and women,” the Pope said concluding his speech, “must continue to rise on the foundations of a right understanding of universal fraternity and respect for the sacredness of every human life, of every man and every woman, the poor, the elderly, children, the infirm, the unborn, the unemployed, the abandoned, those considered disposable because they are only considered as part of a statistic. This common home of all men and women must also be built on the understanding of a certain sacredness of created nature. Such understanding and respect call for a higher degree of wisdom, one which accepts transcendence” and “rejects the creation of an all-powerful élite”. “We cannot permit ourselves to postpone “certain agendas” for the future.” “The future demands of us critical and global decisions in the face of world-wide conflicts which increase the number of the excluded and those in need.”
