HOLY SEE ADDRESSES ANNUAL MEETING OF OSCE3

VATICAN CITY, NOV 28, 2000 (VIS) - The foreign affairs ministers of the 55 member countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), including the recently admitted Yugoslavia, are holding their annual meeting in Vienna, Austria, to review the commitments made 25 years ago in the Helsinki Act and 10 years ago in Paris with the Charter for a New Europe.

Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran heads the delegation of the Holy See, which is a full member of the OSCE, to this November 27-28 meeting. The first annual meeting of this organization, known then as the CSCE or Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, was held in Helsinki 25 years ago.
Archbishop Tauran, in his address, spoke of the "joy" of seeing so many nations of Eastern and Central Europe who had reattained their freedom and were now full members of the OSCE.

He also listed some of "the challenges facing the world's leaders: trade in human beings, protecting the rights of children and the fight against the proliferation of small caliber weapons." He stated that certain values - such as the sacredness of life, the defense of basic freedoms, security and economic and social cooperation - must be continually affirmed in solving these problems.

The archbishop expressed a concern of the Holy See's, namely, that "too often religion is taken into consideration only in the context of defending rights of minorities or to denounce fanaticism." He said "it would be good to consider religion ... for itself," as a source which inspires man to better himself. "Believers who feel respected for what they are will always be more willing to cooperate in building democratic and civil communities where differences are synonymous with mutual enrichment and where diversity calls for solidarity."

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