VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 165   
   DATE 26-09-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - Francis at the United Nations: critical and global decisions in the face of   
   worldwide conflicts   
   - Memorial at Ground Zero: life will always triumph over the prophets of   
   destruction   
   - Meeting with the children and families of immigrants in Harlem   
   - Mass in Madison Square Garden: God is living in our cities   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Francis at the United Nations: critical and global decisions in the face of   
   worldwide conflicts   
    Vatican City, 26 September 2015 (VIS) - The Pope's second day in New York   
   began   
   with his visit to the United Nations headquarters, where the Holy See has been   
   represented since 1964 in its status as a Permanent Observer, with the right of   
   participation without the right to vote.   
    Upon arrival the Holy Father was greeted by the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon,   
   with his wife and two children of United Nations workers who have lost their   
   lives in service, who offered him a bouquet of flowers. The Pope met privately   
   with the Secretary General who subsequently accompanied him to the hall to   
   greet   
   the organisation's staff. Francis laid a floral wreath before the plaque   
   commemorating staff who have lost their lives in service, recalling that the   
   work performed by United Nations employees, from experts to interpreters,   
   kitchen staff to security personnel, constitutes in many respects the   
   "backbone"   
   of the Organisation.   
    "Most of the work done here does not appear in the news", he said. "Behind the   
   scenes your daily efforts make possible many of the diplomatic, cultural,   
   economic and political initiatives of the United Nations, which are so   
   important   
   in responding to the hopes and expectations of the peoples who make up our   
   human   
   family. Thank you for what you do".   
    The Pope then travelled by golf cart to the building of the Assembly General   
   where he met, again privately and individually, with the presidents of the 70th   
   General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft (Denmark) and the 69th, Sam Kahamba Kutesa   
   (Uganda), along with the president of the Security Council, Vitaly Churkin   
   (Russian Federation).   
    After these meetings, the Holy Father entered the Assembly hall where he was   
   greeted with great applause. After the welcome from the president of the 70th   
   General Assembly and the Secretary General of the United Nations, he addressed   
   the Representatives of the Nations, mentioning the praiseworthy achievements of   
   the United Nations during the seventy years of its existence, the construction   
   of structures of international human rights law, and its activity in   
   peace-keeping and reconciliation. He then turned to the issues of the   
   environment and the social and economic exclusion of a large proportion of the   
   world's population. He reiterated that war denies all rights, underlining the   
   need for tireless recourse to negotiation, and denounced religious persecution.   
   He also warned against any type of ideological colonisation and defined drug   
   trafficking as a war which is "taken for granted and poorly fought". He   
   emphasised that international financial bodies must "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".   
    The following is the full text of Pope Francis' address:   
    "Once again, following a tradition by which I feel honoured, the Secretary   
   General of the United Nations has invited the Pope to address this   
   distinguished   
   assembly of nations. In my own name, and that of the entire Catholic community,   
   I wish to express to you, Mr Ban Ki-moon, my heartfelt gratitude. I greet the   
   Heads of State and Heads of Government present, as well as the ambassadors,   
   diplomats and political and technical officials accompanying them, the   
   personnel   
   of the United Nations engaged in this 70th Session of the General Assembly, the   
   personnel of the various programmes and agencies of the United Nations family,   
   and all those who, in one way or another, take part in this meeting. Through   
   you, I also greet the citizens of all the nations represented in this hall. I   
   thank you, each and all, for your efforts in the service of mankind.   
    "This is the fifth time that a Pope has visited the United Nations. I follow   
   in   
   the footsteps of my predecessors Paul VI, in1965, John Paul II, in 1979 and   
   1995, and my most recent predecessor, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in 2008.   
   All of them expressed their great esteem for the Organisation, which they   
   considered the appropriate juridical and political response to this present   
   moment of history, marked by our technical ability to overcome distances and   
   frontiers and, apparently, to overcome all natural limits to the exercise of   
   power. 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 United Nations is presently celebrating its seventieth anniversary. The   
   history of this organised community of states is one of important common   
   achievements over a period of unusually fast-paced changes. Without claiming to   
   be exhaustive, we can mention 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, and any number of other accomplishments in   
   every area of international activity and endeavour. All these achievements are   
   lights which help to dispel the darkness of the disorder caused by unrestrained   
   ambitions and collective forms of selfishness. Certainly, many grave problems   
   remain to be resolved, yet it is also clear that, without all this   
   international   
   activity, mankind would not have been able to survive the unchecked use of its   
   own possibilities. Every one of these political, juridical and technical   
   advances is a path towards attaining the ideal of human fraternity and a means   
   for its greater realisation.   
    "I also pay homage to all those men and women whose loyalty and self-sacrifice   
   have benefited humanity as a whole in these past seventy years. In particular,   
   I   
   would recall today those who gave their lives for peace and reconciliation   
   among   
   peoples, from Dag Hammarskjöld to the many United Nations officials at every   
   level who have been killed in the course of humanitarian missions, and missions   
   of peace and reconciliation.   
    "Beyond these achievements, the experience of the past seventy years has made   
   it clear that reform and adaptation to the times 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 will 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.   
    "The work of the United Nations, according to the principles set forth in the   
   Preamble and the first Articles of its founding Charter, can be seen as the   
   development and promotion of the rule of law, based on the realisation that   
   justice is an essential condition for achieving the ideal of universal   
   fraternity. In this context, it is helpful to recall 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. The effective   
   distribution of power (political, economic, defence-related, technological,   
   etc.) among a plurality of subjects, and the creation of a juridical system for   
   regulating claims and interests, are one concrete way of limiting power. Yet   
   today's world presents us with 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 sectors are   
   closely interconnected and made increasingly fragile by dominant political and   
   economic relationships. That is why their rights must be forcefully affirmed,   
   by   
   working to protect the environment and by putting an end to exclusion.   
    "First, it must be stated that a true 'right of the environment' does exist,   
   for two reasons. First, because we human beings are part of the environment. We   
   live in communion with it, since the environment itself entails ethical limits   
   which human activity must acknowledge and respect. Man, for all his remarkable   
   gifts, which 'are signs of a uniqueness which transcends the spheres of physics   
   and biology', is at the same time a part of these spheres. He possesses a body   
   shaped by physical, chemical and biological elements, and can only survive and   
   develop if the ecological environment is favourable. Any harm done to the   
   environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity. Second, because every   
   creature, particularly a living creature, has an intrinsic value, in its   
   existence, its life, its beauty and its interdependence with other creatures.   
   We   
   Christians, together with the other monotheistic religions, believe that the   
   universe is the fruit of a loving decision by the Creator, who permits man   
   respectfully to use creation for the good of his fellow men and for the glory   
   of   
   the Creator; he is not authorised to abuse it, much less to destroy it. In all   
   religions, the environment is a fundamental good.   
    "The misuse and destruction of the environment are also accompanied by a   
   relentless process of exclusion. In effect, a selfish and boundless thirst for   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)