Rome Newsroom, Oct 27, 2020 / 08:00 am MT (CNA).- The Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations has said that faith-based organizations need to help the international community to see its “lack of consistency” in implementing its most basic principles, such as respect for the dignity of every human being. Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio to the UN, made the remark at an event marking the 75th anniversary of the intergovernmental organization’s founding. “How can we proclaim the rights of people with disabilities while at the same time permit that children diagnosed with Down syndrome in the womb are eliminated before they’re born? How can we have beautiful forums on a culture of peace and then permit various countries to construct foreign policy based on the threat of mutually assured destruction?” Caccia said at “A Faith-Based Vision for The UN at 75 and Beyond” in New York Oct. 21. “How can we say we’re fighting for sex-trafficking victims while at the same time allowing demand for the commodification of women to be driven up through the legalization of prostitution or the promotion of pornography? Or how can we have open-ended working groups on ageing, focused on the dignity of seniors, while looking away when in various countries seniors are suffering involuntary euthanasia?” “People of faith are called both to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. When various injustices are occurring, we are summoned in a particular way to help the international community to live up to its principles,” Caccia said. The Vatican’s permanent observer spoke at two events highlighting both faith-based and, in particular, Catholic perspectives on international diplomacy ahead of the anniversary of the United Nations’ founding on Oct. 24, 1945.
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Vatican diplomat: Catholics can help UN to live up to its principles
Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio to the UN, made the remark at an event marking the 75th anniversary of the intergovernmental organization’s founding.
Courtney Mares/CNA

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