“The
Pope warned about violations of freedom of conscience and speech of Christians
in the West who are restricted in “proclaim[ing] the truths of the
Gospel
for political or ideological reasons, especially when they defend the dignity
of the weakest, the unborn, refugees and migrants, or promote the family”.”
Reflecting on the decline of multilateralism, Pope Leo
XIV noted with regret that “[a] diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks
consensus among all parties” is being replaced with “a diplomacy based on
force, by either individuals or groups of allies.”
Pope Leo pointed to military aggression as an example
of coercive diplomacy.
He then described subliminal pressures that undermine
multilateral dialogue, such as the aggressive imposition of progressive norms
and values as universal.
“A new Orwellian-style language is developing which,
in an attempt to be increasingly inclusive, ends up excluding those who do not
conform to the ideologies that are fueling it,” the Pope explained. In this
context, the Pope said, “[r]ediscovering the meaning of words is perhaps one of
the primary challenges of our time.”
At the UN, the imposition of several controversial
terms is so fierce that, in a dramatic move last month, Sweden withdrew a
UN resolution on humanitarian assistance due to concerns that a commitment to
sexual and reproductive health (SRH) would not be included in the final text.
While the UN system and several powerful governments
define SRH as including a right to abortion and other controversial services,
over forty UN member and observer states, including the Holy See, make
interventions at the General Assembly to dissociate from SRH and to clarify
that they do not support abortion.
The same principle applies to UN language about
“gender” or “sexual orientation and gender identity,” which always results in
dissociations by the Holy See and governments from the Global South clarifying
their opposition to gender ideology.
In his address, Pope Leo called the persecution of
Christians “one of the most widespread human rights crises today” and insisted
that “[w]e must not forget a subtle form of religious discrimination against
Christians.”
The Pope warned about violations of freedom of
conscience and speech of Christians in the West who are restricted in
“proclaim[ing] the truths of the Gospel for political or ideological reasons,
especially when they defend the dignity of the weakest, the unborn, refugees
and migrants, or promote the family.”
“The right to freedom of expression, freedom of
conscience, religious freedom and even the right to life are being restricted
in the name of other so-called new rights, with the result that the very
framework of human rights is losing its vitality and creating space for force
and oppression,” the Pope continued.
The Pope … “considers it deplorable that public
resources are allocated to suppress life, rather than being invested to support
mothers and families” and that the Holy See “categorically reject[s] any
practice that denies or exploits the origin of life and its development,”
including abortion and surrogacy.
The Pope also talked about a “double attack” on the
family, including by the international system, which tends to “neglect and
underestimate its fundamental social role, leading to its progressive
institutional marginalization.”
Pope Leo XIV built his “State of the World Address”
around Saint Augustine’s The City of God and reiterated Saint
Augustine’s call for Christians to “dwell in the earthly city with their hearts
and minds turned towards the heavenly city” and show love of others by
fostering peace and caring for the most vulnerable among us, including the unborn,
sick, elderly, isolated, and those who flee their homes as refugees.
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