The chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences says the United Nations is not the devil, and the academy is free to collaborate with it.
Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo said the Church will continue to collaborate with the United Nations on any joint project that “does not go against the doctrine of the Church”.
The Vatican academy is sponsoring a one-day symposium on July 22 with the United Nations’ global initiative, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, headed by US economist Jeffrey Sachs.
The academy is also sponsoring a related day-long workshop on July 21, bringing together 60 mayors and representatives of major cities around the world to take steps against modern-day forms of slavery in their communities.
In April, the international coalition Voice of the Family voiced “grave” concern at Vatican collaboration with the UN at a climate change summit.
It was claimed that environmental issues at the UN become an umbrella to cover a wide spectrum of attacks on human life and the family.
Opposition was expressed at the Vatican cooperating with organisations and individuals who promote population control in ways that clearly violate Church teaching.
At the press conference, Bishop Sanchez was asked if the Vatican was letting itself become a platform for the United Nations to promote its own agenda.
Bishop Sanchez said the idea for and organisation of the July 22 meeting came from the pontifical academy with added input from the UN development network.
“The United Nations is not the devil. Rather, quite the opposite,” he said.
Pope Paul VI, who was the first pope to visit the United Nations, told the general assembly in 1965 that the organisation represented the mandatory path of modern civilization and world peace, the bishop said.
Successive popes showed the same kind of support with their own visits to the UN, too, he added.
“To see the devil in the United Nations, which some on the right tend to do, is not the position of the Holy See,” he said.
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