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Catholic World News News Feature

New book-length collection of Vatican diplomatic speeches June 30, 2003

The Vatican today introduced a new book of speeches by diplomatic representatives of the Holy See, delivered to various international bodies.

The book, Word that Matter, includes major addresses by Vatican representatives from 1970 to 2000. The collection was edited by Archbishop Andre Dupuy, a veteran Vatican diplomat now serving as apostolic nuncio in Venezuela.

As the book was unveiled at a Monday press conference in Rome, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran said that the volume would serve as "testimony to the conviction with which the Holy See-- a sovereign state under international law, religious by nature-- wishes to take part in international diplomacy." He added that the particular contribution the Holy See makes in international affairs is the frequent reminders that "objective moral law, written on the heart of man, constitutes the normative reference for civil law."

The 800-page book provides speeches on a wide variety of topics, including the right to life, the rights of women, freedom of speech and of religion, and world peace. There are 1,310 separate documents in the collection. In some cases the book provides only a summary of the speech, but an accompanying CD-ROM, to be distributed with the book, carries the full text.

Archbishop Tauran, the chief foreign-policy official at the Vatican, noted that officials of the Holy See have become important players in many current controversies. Responding to a reporter's question about the evident failure of Vatican efforts to prevent war in Iraq this year, the archbishop said: "If people criticized the Holy See in the past for not speaking out enough, this time is seems that we said everything; maybe the Holy See spoke too much."