Pope Urges Respect For Human Rights

At U.N., Benedict XVI Says International Cooperation Undercut By "Decisions Of A Small Number"

(CBS/AP)  Pope Benedict XVI told diplomats at the United Nations on Friday that respect for human rights was the key to solving many of the world's problems, while cautioning that international cooperation was threatened by "the decisions of a small number."

The pontiff, addressing the U.N. General Assembly on his first papal trip to the U.S., said the organization's work is vital. But he raised concerns that power is concentrated among just handful of players.

"Multilateral consensus," he said, speaking in French, "continues to be in crisis because it is still subordinated to the decisions of a small number."

The world's problems call for collective interventions by the international community, he said.

"The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and increasing security," the pope said.

Benedict, only the third pope to address the United Nations, made the remarks after three dramatic days in which he repeatedly discussed America's clergy sexual abuse scandal.

"The pope's address to the U.N. General Assembly focused on peace and development, and touched on the issues of security, freedom, poverty, the rule of law and the responsibility of the world to protect victims of grave human rights abuses," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk from the U.N.

"His address emphasized the Holy See’s support for the U.N. and defined the role of the Church in the world as a moral authority, calling for the world to guarantee human dignity and religious freedom," Falk added.

The U.N. setting contrasted dramatically with the intimacy of a meeting Thursday, at which Benedict prayed with weeping victims of childhood sexual abuse by priests.

The pope took an early morning flight from the Washington, D.C., to New York City. He was greeted by New York Cardinal Edward Egan and taken to a helicopter for the ride into Manhattan.

Across from the U.N., several hundred supporters, many of them Hispanic, gathered behind metal police barricades.

"Benedetto!" many shouted in Spanish.

A group of New Jersey Catholics held up a banner for the German-born pope that combined German - "Willkommen Pope Benedict XVI" - and English sentiments: "You Rock!"

A small anti-pope contingent included a group calling itself Forum for Protection of Religious Pluralism.

Financial consultant Padmanabh Rao, a Hindu from Woodbridge, New Jersey, complained that the Vatican is converting people in India to Catholicism.

Queens contractor William Salazar, who identified himself as a Navajo Indian, said Catholic priests "came to America and they killed our children. Now the pope is sending priests all over the world who are raping our children."

Before the pontiff's speech, Benedict and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met alone for 15 minutes.

"It's a reminder that he speaks not just as the sovereign of a tiny little speck of earth inside the city of Rome, but he speaks as someone whose voice is heard as a spiritual leader by a fifth of humanity," said Professor Peter Pham of James Madison University.

Pope Benedict took that voice late today to a Synagogue on the eve of Passover. He's the first Pope to ever do so on U.S. soil, reports CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts.

The pope's New York visit will also include a visit to ground zero, site of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and a Mass at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Later Friday, he was to visit a synagogue and meet with leaders of other Christian denominations.

It remains to be seen whether Benedict will continue to talk about the sexual abuse crisis. He has been widely expected to broach the subject on Saturday when he celebrates Mass for priests, deacons and members of religious orders at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan.

On Thursday, Benedict met privately with abuse victims in Washington between an open-air Mass at Nationals Park and a meeting with Catholic educators.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a papal spokesman, said that Benedict and Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley met with a group of five or six abuse victims for about 25 minutes, offering them encouragement and hope. The group from O'Malley's archdiocese were all adults, men and women, who had been molested when they were minors. Each spoke privately with the pope and the whole group prayed together.

One of the victims, Bernie McDaid, told The Associated Press that he shook the pope's hand, told him he was an altar boy and had been abused by a priest in the sacristy of his parish. The abuse, he told Benedict, was not only sexual but spiritual.

"I said, 'Holy Father, you need to know you have a cancer in your flock and I hope you will do something for this problem; you have to fix this,"' McDaid said. "He looked down at the floor and back at me, like, 'I know what you mean.' He took it in emotionally. We looked eye to eye."

Olan Horne, another Boston-area victim who prayed and talked with Benedict, told the AP, "I believe we turned the pope's head a little in the right direction."

Both men have worked with church officials in the aftermath of the crisis, and met with a new office established by U.S. bishops in response to the scandal.

Their sentiments were echoed by O'Malley, who called the meeting "a very moving experience for all who participated."

Benedict's address to the presidents of Catholic colleges and universities was among the most anticipated of his trip, but was overshadowed by the meeting with victims.

The pope, a former academic, said academic freedom has "great value" for the schools, but does not justify promoting positions that violate the Catholic faith.

[newsterl]

pagan v/s christian

As can be seen, the dramatic difference between the CHRISTIAN history of violence, bloodshed, death, subversion, jailings, burning at the stake, torture, protecting pedo priests, encouraging slavery and paganism with it''''s beliefs.
Notice paganism has no hypocritical god waiting to swoop down and send you to eternal torture for minor infractions, demanding you kill animals for ''''sin'''' offerings, to save you from himself or threaten you into ''''belief'''' and ''''obedience''''

"Thou shalt STONE TO DEATH the adulterer"
"Their BLOOD shall be upon them"
"Kill the bullock, sprinkle its blood about the altar and on your clothes, then burn the flesh for a SIN offering to the lord"

v/s

"Pagans honour the Divine in all its aspects, whether male or female, as parts of the sacred whole. Every man and woman is, to a Pagan, a beautiful and unique being. Children are loved and honoured and there is a strong sense of community. The woods and open spaces of the land, home to wild animals and birds, are cherished. Paganism stresses personal spiritual experience, and Pagans often find that experience through their relationship with the natural world that they love. We seek spiritual union with Divinity by attuning with the tides of Nature and by exploring our inner selves, seeing each reflected in the other.

These are important distinctions between the two, one has a documented HISTORY of violence and a book promoting it, the other doesn''''t.

[gunownerdan]

Try finding HUMAN RIGHTS in China, or Russia, or Saudi Arabia.
These are some of the most powerful members of the UN and they are brutal totalitarian dictatorships.
No wonder the UN wants to DESTROY our most basic human and constitutional rights!
A-HUMAN-RIGHT.com

[tucano2]

Works, do Works, get something Done! For example fire Mahoney and most of the rest of the leadership in the USA for leading Americans, particularly young male Americans, down the garden path and behind some Bushes where priests rape the boys and the leadership hide the monsters and give these perps other parishes to attack still more Americans. Mahoney''s hide and seek ''game'' with prosecutors to protect child-rapist priests is criminal; throw the s.o.b. in jail with other *** offenders, and perhaps he''ll cough up the files quickly enough. These miserable monsters need to be treated as any other child-rapist is treated. Take off the gloves!

[titletrack]

Doesn''t the Pope realize that Human Rights goes against Islamic culture?

[keithle1]

Screw the Pope. Who cares what he has to say? Screw the Catholic Church. Who needs them? Maybe the poor & the desperate.

The world needs more babies. More poor people. We haven''t got enough. Look at Africa. It''s a paradise. People in Mexico/Central America can find jobs in their countries. You never see them trying to get into the USA ilegally.

EVERY WOMAN WHO GETS PREGNANT HAS TO HAVE THE BABY. THAT''S THE CATHOLIC WAY. DON''T ARGUE. OR YOU''RE DAMNED TO HELL. CALL YOUR PRIEST OR NUN. THEY''LL BE HAPPY TO BABYSIT. KEEP THOSE BABIES COMING! THROW AROUND YOUR CONDOMS & BIRTH CONTROL!

[ioweign]

It would be nice if the Pope had some respect for human life! But, currently church policy dictates human suffering is preferable to controlling over-population. That''s what I call being completely irresponsible.

Posted by grumpas at 09:31 AM : Apr 19, 2008

You do have control over your reproduction. It is called self-control. You are responsible for your actions.

[fabrat1]

To grumpas... you have no idea what you''re talking about!! Just go comment on something you understand because you clearly don''t know anything about the Pope or the Catholic church. I wish I could have seen the Pope in person it would have been wonderful.

[wardoglrs]

Why isnt he "the pope" arrested for crimes against children. Infact they all should be in prison. This man is satan
himself. But here we are in a texas case where the police come in against our constitution take children from there mothers and farthers and put them in foster care. The pope comes to town and its all good? ***

[demslie]

When the genocidal murderer and world wide terrorist supporter, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited the US, Democrats fell all over themselves and joined their partners, Al Qaeda in heaping praise and worship to this murderous devil. Democrats were filled with love for Ahmadinejad he preached Hate and Evil for all non-Muslims and said that Israel, America and Christians should be wiped off the world map. Now the Pope visits preaching love and respect and Democrats including all here at these posts are filled with Hate and Anger. Now we know who the enemy is and Democrats want us to vote for them because they promise a "New Change for America?"

[grumpas]

It would be nice if the Pope had some respect for human life! But, currently church policy dictates human suffering is preferable to controlling over-population. That''s what I call being completely irresponsible.

[r9119111]

The world is full of all kinds of people. Some people are good and some are bad. Most of the worlds problems are cause by those who think they are right and therefore superior. Those people will even kill to achieve dominance. What kind of a person are you? Are you a hawk or a dove? Even if all of the current hawks were killed, new ones would appear. This is reality. How do we deal with all those people who practice self-righteous domination of others? Can they be dealt with peacefully or is war the only answer to settling differences? War never really accomplishes very much. America once stood for what was good about people. We all need to clean our own house before trying to tell others what they should be doing. Peace and human rights are possible. There is hope.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by jamesm12341

So are we to take it that you see the 4,000 plus US soldiers dead uncounted Iraqis dead, 60,000 wounded US soldiers, and uncounted wounded Iraqis wounded, all the result of intentional lies, as nothing wrong, huh?

Doesn''t sound too rational to me.

[newsterl]

You are wrong; the Catholic church does not promote anti-gay rights; it is the behavior not the person.

Posted by Gypsy0126

Oh YEAH right! another way of slamming gay people- just tell them you love the SINNER not the sin, that''s like telling a fat woman you love FAT people like her, but not red shoes some fat people wear.

YOU are wrong, who do you think is behind the push for constitutional amendments to make marriage between one man and one woman? Focus on the phallus, er family is another one.


youtube.com/user/dersheeple

[nothappyatall]

It wasn;t on the popes watch that the abuse was committed.
Have some respect.

Posted by factsearcher"

Might want to do some RESEARCH on that! the guy is hypocritical right-wing 15th century skum, I can only PRAY he goes home on a plane whose engine FAILS halfway across the pond so that they ship whats left of his carcas back the rest of the way.
We''ll see if prayer really works or not.

[nothappyatall]

Queens contractor William Salazar, who identified himself as a Navajo Indian, said Catholic priests "came to America and they killed our children. Now the pope is sending priests all over the world who are raping our children."

christianity''s history is chock FULL of death bloodshed violence and more.

[it_oldtimer]

The Catholic Church is the F*A*G*G*O*T Church.

(re: fix for the silly censorship here)

[it_oldtimer]

The Catholic Church is the *** Church. Vows of Celibacy = guarantee of child molestation.

[it_oldtimer]

@ jdubs63: we ARE your friends and neighbors, and we abhor your presence in our midst.

[it_oldtimer]

@ jdubs63: we ARE your friends and neighbors, and we abhor your presence in our midst.

[it_oldtimer]

Was the "Inquisition" just another another example of the Catholic churches "respect for Human Rights" then? How about the cruel, bloody religious conquest and domination of South America and Africa?

The Catholic church is a major perpetrator -- they pioneered and endorsed religious persecution on a massive scale.

The Catholic Church is not an example of "good religion" -- they are a classic example of evil incarnate.