The Discourse of Pope John Paul II: Relevance to the United Nations

An excerpt from the thesis:

The director of the Vatican press office, Federico Lombardi, S.J., summarized the anticipation of many concerning the probable content of the Pope’s message to the representatives of the 192 member nations. In an interview with Zenit International News Service,1 Lombardi commented that “there were some who expected the Pope . . . to denounce one or another of the dramatic situations of injustice and conflict in the world today. No. The Pope has done that and continues to do it often, in his Address to the diplomatic corps at the beginning of the year, in his Christmas and Easter messages, in numerous appeals on different occasions.” Similarly, “there were those who expected that the Pope would engage in polemics against the tendencies of various UN agencies to favor abortion and contraception. No.” Rather, “on this occasion the Pope chose to give a speech of a different nature.”