VATICAN CITY, SEP 17, 2005 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon, Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano addressed the High-Level Plenary Meeting of the 60th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, which was held in New York from September 14 to 16.
At the beginning of his address, which was delivered in French, the cardinal affirmed that the UN "is an institution that is ever more necessary for the peace and progress of the whole of humanity." Nonetheless, he added, "time has taken its toll upon this agency, as upon every human undertaking." Therefore, it "needs to be renewed, in response to the great challenges of the present day."
Cardinal Sodano emphasized how the juridical framework of the United Nations Statute "must be complemented by the necessary international juridical instruments for disarmament and the control of arms, for the fight against terrorism and international crime and for effective cooperation between the United Nations and regional agencies, in order to resolve situations of conflict."
With reference to peacekeeping operations, the secretary of State asserted that the Holy See "is in favor of the creation of an agency to restore peace to countries that have suffered armed conflicts. The Holy See, in other words, is in favor of the 'Peacebuilding Commission,' intended to design and implement an ambitious strategy to overcome those elements of ethnic rivalry which give rise to conflicts and which could re-ignite them in the future."
Cardinal Sodano also pointed to the need for profound reflection on "the problem of the use of force to disarm the aggressor." On this subject, he called on States to continue to discuss the application and practical consequences of the principle of "responsibility to protect," in order to solve, in "the most opportune" way, situations "in which national authorities either cannot or will not protect their own populations, in the face of internal or external threats."
As for commitment to development, the cardinal affirmed that, despite "promising gestures" from governments in recent years, "much work remains to be done in order to achieve greater economic and financial solidarity. This must include a solution to the debt problem of the poorest countries and of average-income countries with serious foreign debt problems."
"The Holy See," said the cardinal in concluding remarks, "reaffirms its full support for the objectives of this summit and undertakes to do what it can to help the summit produce the desired fruits rapidly so that an era of peace and social justice may quickly follow. The words spoken by the late Pope John Paul II ... in 1987 have lost none of their relevance: 'the poor cannot wait!'."
SS/UN SUMMIT 2005/SODANO VIS 20050919 (450)
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