Pope Leo Seeks A Less Ideological United Nations
Pope Leo said a 'double attack' by the United Nations on family life underestimates the latter's fundamental social role and leads to 'its progressive marginalization.'
(NEW YORK – C-Fam) In his annual address to the diplomatic corps, Pope Leo XIV called for a more “focused and efficient” UN that prioritizes “the unity of the human family” over ideologies. The Roman Pontiff condemned ongoing wars, persecution of Christians, censorship in the name of “inclusivity”, and practices that reject the dignity of human life, including abortion, euthanasia, and surrogacy.
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.