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Catholic World News News Feature

Papal theme for UN address forecast: Might does not make right April 11, 2008

In his April 18 speech to the UN, Pope Benedict XVI will address "the false nation that might makes right," the Vatican representative to the international body has told the Associated Press.

Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the permanent observer for the Holy See at UN headquarters in New York, said that the Pontiff will not focus on specific international trouble-spots, but will concentrate on the general argument that "our future must be based on respect for universal truths and our common humanity."

The remarks by Archbishop Migliore match the predictions that the Pope, in addressing the UN, will emphasize the importance of reliance on natural law as the basis for recognizing human rights. The papal visit to the UN comes in the context of the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights.

Pope Benedict made natural-law arguments a major theme of his January 7 address to the diplomats accredited to the Holy See-- the Pope's annual "state of the world" address. He explained that the Church defends human rights on the basis of innate human dignity, which is in turn a function of natural law.