His Holiness Pope Francis addressed the General
Assembly of the United Nations on September 25, 2015, at UN headquarters in New
York. It was the fifth time a reigning Pontiff addressed the body; however, it
was the first time in history that a Pope has done so during the annual “heads
of state and government” session that opens the work of the Assembly each Fall.
We can be particularly encouraged by these
excerpts of our Holy Father’s address calling for the respect for the
sacredness of every human life, ensuring the dignity of every human person,
supporting the right of the family to educate its children, and ensuring
spiritual and religious freedom:
“… It must never be forgotten that political and economic
activity is only effective when it is understood as a prudential activity,
guided by a perennial concept of justice and constantly conscious of the fact
that, above and beyond our plans and programmes, we are dealing with real men
and women who live, struggle and suffer, and are often forced to live in great
poverty, deprived of all rights.
To enable these real men and women to escape from extreme
poverty, we must allow them to be dignified agents of their own destiny.
Integral human development and the full exercise of human dignity cannot be
imposed. They must be built up and allowed to unfold for each individual,
for every family, in communion with others, and in a right relationship with
all those areas in which human social life develops – friends, communities,
towns and cities, schools, businesses and unions, provinces, nations,
etc. 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, as well as the right of churches and social groups to support and
assist families in the education of their 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.
For all this, the simplest and best measure and indicator of the
implementation of the new (UN) Agenda for development will be effective,
practical and immediate access, on the part of all, to essential material and
spiritual goods: housing, dignified and properly remunerated employment,
adequate food and drinking water; religious freedom and, more generally,
spiritual freedom and education. These pillars of integral human
development have a common foundation, which is the right to life and, more
generally, what we could call the right to existence of human nature itself….
The common home of all men and women 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 house 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, rejects the creation of an
all-powerful élite, and recognizes that the full meaning of individual and
collective life is found in selfless service to others and in the sage and
respectful use of creation for the common good. To repeat the words of
Paul VI, “the edifice of modern civilization has to be built on spiritual
principles, for they are the only ones capable not only of supporting it, but
of shedding light on it”….
The praiseworthy international juridical
framework of the United Nations Organization and of all its activities, like
any other human endeavour, can be improved, yet it remains necessary; at the
same time it can be the pledge of a secure and happy future for future
generations. And so it will, if the representatives of the States can set
aside partisan and ideological interests, and sincerely strive to serve the
common good. I pray to Almighty God that this will be the case, and I
assure you of my support and my prayers, and the support and prayers of all the
faithful of the Catholic Church, that this Institution, all its member States,
and each of its officials, will always render an effective service to mankind,
a service respectful of diversity and capable of bringing out, for sake of the
common good, the best in each people and in every individual.”
For the complete text of Pope Francis’ Address
to the United Nations General Assembly, please visit:
For more
information, please visit:
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| Memories of witnessing Pope Benedict XVI's Address to the United Nations |
Pope Francis
pledged his support and prayers, along with those of all the faithful of the
Catholic Church, so that the United Nations will always serve the common good
of all humanity in order to bring out the best in each person. How is
the Lord calling you to respond?
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