PAPAL AUDIENCE WITH SECRETARY GENERAL OF UNITED NATIONS
April 7, 2000
(Note: In this address, the Holy Father makes reference to his
concern about nations trying to impose policies that are contrary to the defense
of life and family.)
Mr Secretary General,
Distinguished Guests,
1. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all on the occasion of the
meeting in Rome of the Administrative Committee on Coordination of the United
Nations system. Recognizing the work undertaken by your Committee for the good
of peoples around the world, I pray that God will give you and all taking part
in your meeting the gift of wise discernment in your deliberations. Thank you,
Mr Secretary General, for your kind words of presentation, and I am certain that
your recent "Millennium Report" will serve as an excellent framework for the
Committee's work during these days.
As that report makes clear, the millennium just ended has left in its wake a
series of unusual challenges. These challenges are unusual not because they are
new - there have always been wars, persecutions, poverty, disasters and
epidemics - but because the world's increasing interdependence has given them a
global dimension, which requires new ways of thinking and new types of
international cooperation if they are to be effectively met. At the dawn of the
new millennium, humanity has the means to do this. The United Nations, in fact,
and the large family of specialized organizations represented by you are the
natural forum for developing such a mentality and strategy of international
solidarity.
In the task of formulating this new perspective, the Administrative Committee
on Coordination has a fundamental role to play. It brings together the most
senior members of the different specialized agencies, under the direction of the
Secretary General, for the express purpose of coordinating the various policies
and programmes. This is why your Committee has concentrated its reflections and
efforts on the implications of globalization for development, on the
socio-economic causes of humanitarian crises and of the persistent conflicts in
Africa and other parts of the world, and on the institutional capacity of the
United Nations system to respond to new international challenges.
2. The unbounded expansion of world commerce and the amazing progress in the
fields of technology, communications and information exchange are all part of a
dynamic process that tends to abolish the distances separating peoples and
continents. However, the ability to exercise influence in this new global
setting is not the same for all nations, but is more or less tied to a country's
economic and technological capacity. The new situation is such that, in many
cases, decisions with worldwide consequences are made only by a small,
restricted group of nations. Other nations either manage - often with great
effort - to bring these decisions into line with what is in the interest of
their citizens or - as happens with the weakest countries - they try simply to
adjust to these decisions as best they can, sometimes with negative consequences
for their people. The majority of the world's nations, therefore, are
experiencing a weakening of the State in its capacity to serve the common good
and promote social justice and harmony.
Moreover, the globalization of the economy is leading to a globalization of
society and culture. In this context, Non-Governmental Organizations,
representing a very broad spectrum of special interests, are becoming ever more
important in international life. And perhaps one of the best results of their
action so far is the awareness which they are creating of the need to move from
an attitude of defence and promotion of particular and competing special
interests to a holistic vision of development. A case in point is their
increasing success in creating a keener awareness in industrialized countries of
their shared responsibility for the problems facing less developed countries.
The campaign to reduce or cancel the foreign debt of the poorest nations is
another example, though not the only one, of a growing sense of international
solidarity.
3. The growth of this new awareness in society presents the United Nations
system with a unique opportunity to contribute to the globalization of
solidarity by serving as a meeting place for States and civil society and as a
convergence of the varied interests and needs -regional and particular - of the
world at large. Cooperation between International Agencies and Non-Governmental
Organizations will help to ensure that the interests of States - legitimate
though they may be -and of the different groups within them, will not be invoked
or defended at the expense of the interests or rights of other peoples,
especially the less fortunate. Political and economic activity conducted in a
spirit of international solidarity can and ought to lead to the voluntary
limitation of unilateral advantages so that other countries and peoples may
share in the same benefits. In this way the social and economic well-being of
everyone is served.
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the challenge is to build a world in
which individuals and peoples fully and unequivocally accept responsibility for
their fellow human beings, for all the earth's inhabitants. Your work can do
much to empower the multilateral system to bring about such international
solidarity. The premise of all this effort is the recognition of the dignity and
centrality of every human being as an equal member of the human family and, for
believers, as God's equal children. The task then is to ensure the acceptance at
every level of society of the logical consequences of our shared human dignity,
and to guarantee respect for that dignity in every situation.
4. In this regard, I must express my deep concern when I see that certain
groups try to impose on the international community ideological views or
patterns of life advocated by small and particular segments of society. This is
perhaps most obvious in such fields as the defence of life and the safeguarding
of the family. The leaders of Nations must be careful not to overturn what the
international community and law have laboriously developed to preserve the
dignity of the human person and the cohesion of society. This is a common
patrimony which no one has the right to dissipate.
Invoking divine guidance upon every effort and undertaking of your Committee
in its mission of coordinating the activities of the United Nations system, I
pray that your work will be thoroughly pervaded by a generous and ambitious
spirit of global solidarity. God bless you, Mr Secretary General, and all who
are gathered with you at this meeting!
(Original Text)
