The Holy See’s diplomat to the United Nations has reiterated a call to end nuclear proliferation, saying the best way to honour the late Pope Francis is to “rediscover the spirit” that created the UN and collaboratively strive for peace. Source: Catholic Review.
Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the Holy See’s UN permanent observer, shared his thoughts in two addresses at the UN’s New York headquarters on Tuesday.
At a plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly convened to commemorate Pope Francis, Archbishop Caccia stressed the late pontiff “recognised the fundamental importance of multilateralism, with the UN at its centre.”
While “not afraid to highlight the need” for what he’d called “reform and adaptation”, Pope Francis was “clear” that the UN was necessary, Archbishop Caccia said.
He cited three key moments that demonstrated Pope Francis’s belief in the importance of the UN – the late pope’s September 25, 2015, address to the UN General Assembly, delivered amid an apostolic journey to the US and Cuba; a joint statement Pope Francis issued with UN Secretary-General António Guterres in 2020; and the March 27, 2020, prayer of Pope Francis during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic prayer in particular – which saw a solitary Pope Francis praying for the world from an empty St Peter’s Square amid the rain – vividly illustrated global interdependence, Archbishop Caccia said.
He added that Pope Francis had also warned of an “uncontained pandemic, a moral one, which he defined as ‘the globalisation of indifference.’“
Such indifference, coupled with fear, has led to an increased “erosion of international peace and security, widespread political instability and a growing disregard for multilateralism and international law,” said Archbishop Caccia, speaking on Tuesday during the UN general debate on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Adopted by the UN in 2017, the treaty serves as a legally binding instrument towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons. To date, there are 94 state signatories and 73 states party to the treaty.
Neither the United States nor Russia, which together account for approximately 88 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, have adopted the treaty.
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Archbishop Caccia to UN: Dialogue, disarmament ‘best way’ to honor Pope Francis (By Gina Christian, OSV News via Catholic Review)
