The Vatican’s foreign minister yesterday reaffirmed before the United Nations the Holy See’s commitment to promoting the dignity and equality of women, but warned that these goals cannot be achieved without respecting dignity “from the unborn to the elderly”. Source: CNA.
“Women’s equality cannot be achieved unless the dignity of all people is respected, especially the most fragile and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly,” Archbishop Paul Gallagher said.
The Secretary for Relations with States gave his address on the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, and the text was released by the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York.
The former Apostolic Nuncio to Australia emphasised that the protection of the right to life “is essential, as it underpins all other fundamental rights”.
Archbishop Gallagher also called for comprehensive, quality health care for pregnant women, noting: “Although maternal mortality rates have dropped significantly since 1990, progress has stalled in recent years. Access to prenatal care and skilled birth attendants as well as to healthcare systems and infrastructure must increase, while false solutions such as abortion rejected.”
He said the Holy See hopes that, “instead of focusing on divisive issues that are not necessarily beneficial to women, states fulfill their commitments to ensure equality for women and respect for their God-given dignity.”
Archbishop Gallagher recalled that the Beijing Declaration – the commitment adopted by 189 countries at the Fourth World Conference on Women, organised by the UN in September 1995 in China – was a decisive milestone in the promotion of women’s rights.
However, he pointed out that there are issues that “remain unaddressed”.
Specifically, he referred to “the higher extreme poverty rate among women,” the obstacles to accessing quality education – and even “exclusion from it” – and lower wages in the workforce.
Archbishop Gallagher made it clear that these conditions “impede the full achievement of women’s equal dignity and ability to fulfill their potential in all spheres of life”.
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Vatican rejects ‘false solutions such as abortion’ while defending women’s equality at UN (CNA)
