PRESENTATION OF BOOK ON TALKS BY HOLY SEE REPRESENTATIVES

VATICAN CITY, JUN 30, 2003 (VIS) - Today in the Holy See Press office, Archbishops Jean-Louis Tauran, secretary for Relations with States, and Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, presented the book "Words That Matter," which gathers in one volume speeches by representatives of the Holy See to international institutions between 1970 and 2000. The book was edited by Archbishop Andre Dupuy, apostolic nuncio in Venezuela. He also spoke during the presentation.

Archbishop Tauran said he hoped that leaders and diplomats will be inspired by this book "in their search for reasonable, peaceful, fair and impartial resolutions, capable of solving conflicts and of banning force from international life. May this book help (people) to better understand the basic reason for the presence of the Holy See in the midst of the community of Nations: to be the voice that human consciences await!"

Archbishop Martino affirmed that the volume, nearly 800 pages long, covers topics that go from "the right to religious freedom to social development, from the right to peace to the right to life, from the rights of women and children to the rights of refugees."

For his part, Archbishop Dupuy made it clear that this "is a work instrument meant for experts in international law, a text for diplomats to consult and for whoever wishes to better know the Holy See's position on certain international questions."

"Words That Matter," he added, "contains speeches given by Holy See delegations before international organizations and during international conferences and meetings that took place over a period of 30 years, from 1970 to 2000. There are 1,310 documents. The speeches given by the Holy Father John Paul II in the context of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy will be part of another volume in the future."
The nuncio in Venezuela concluded by noting that "a CD-ROM published with the book contains the complete text of the majority of the speeches cited in the sources. In fact, for several of them, a very small number, there are only summaries."

OP;SPEECHES; HOLY SEE DELEGATES;...;TAURAN; MARTINO;VIS;20030630;Word: 350;