Vatican observer to the UN speaks at Goddard

Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, spoke about peace and the role of the Pope in international relations yesterday.

Migliore's speech, delivered at the Goddard Chapel Forum on Religion and Politics, was centered on a spiritually directive letter, or encyclical, written by Pope John XXIII in 1963 called "Pacem in Terris," or "Peace on Earth." John XXIII's encyclical aimed to update the teachings of the church regarding war and peace.

"Many wonder what entitles the pope, a spiritual leader, to deal with these secular issues," Migliore said. He reasoned that since humans are given moral choice, "politics is subject to moral scrutiny."

Migliore said that Catholic social teaching was based on Jesus' teaching to "love your neighbor" and is rooted in the gospel, or teachings of Jesus as related in the Christian Bible.

"Loving our neighbor on the social level means looking at every aspect of our daily existence on the grounds of love," Migliore said.

"The pope does not speak with the authority of a military official or a head of state," he said. "He speaks as a churchman, trying to clarify the gospel's point of view."

Migliore emphasized the Vatican's position on the necessity of the UN in the Iraq conflict. "The Holy See kept insisting on the indispensable role of the UN," he said, "since the very beginning of the Iraqi crisis."

Peter Thuesen, a professor in the comparative religion department, asked Migliore if the Vatican was "engaged in trying to persuade the Bush administration to abandon unilateralism." Migliore responded by saying that the Vatican is now pressuring for UN influence in reconstruction of Iraq and has communicated this to both Bush and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

"What concerns us is that we work for quick democratic reconstruction and we think that the UN can help a lot," he said.

Migliore said that though the Vatican sometimes disagreed with the UN on certain social teachings such as "life issues" involving abortion and birth control, it still considered the UN "a credible instrument of strengthening and maintaining world peace."

"Pacem in Terris" was written at the height of the Cold War. "The world in which John XXIII wrote was then in a state of profound disorder," Migliore said. "The encyclical spoke of everyone belonging to the human family."

He cited the Berlin Wall, the Holocaust, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as examples that the state was "no longer sufficient to guarantee stability."

Migliore said that "Pacem in Terris" sought to replace the idea of "we will always have wars" with "peace is possible" and updated Catholicism's Just War principles, which seek to minimize the consequences of war.

"Let's employ persuasion and negotiation first and foremost," Migliore said. "What concerns us is not the effects of war, but the people, the civilian population."

He used embargos and an example. "If an embargo is used as a nonviolent alternative," he said, those who put the embargo in place must ensure that it does not hurt the civilian population "so that people who are suffering for so many other reasons will not be further penalized."

Migliore praised Pope John Paul II's famous opposition to Communism and support of Lech Walesa's Solidarity Movement in Poland, saying that Communism's sole focus on a class struggle resulted in the loss of individual identity. "Nations, communities, families, and individuals should not be anonymously immersed into a society," he said. In Migliore's view, by supporting those who opposed Communism in Poland, Pope John Paul II ensured that "the church is no longer the opium of the people, but the vitamin of the weak."

Migliore was introduced by University Chaplain David O'Leary and by Archbishop of Boston Sean O'Malley. "We're so pleased the Holy Father has named [Migliore] to the UN and we're sure he'll do a great job," O'Malley said.

"It's a wonderful topic," O'Malley said of the speech. The archbishop mentioned that he gave the valedictory speech, in Latin, on "Pacem in Terris" at his graduation from the seminary.

Migliore was appointed to his position by Pope John Paul II in 2002 after serving in Angola, Egypt, and as a representative to the Organization of American States. According to O'Leary, when he contacted Migliore last year, he was "very open to visiting."