Holy See

State Secretary of the Holy See Pietro Parolin urged world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Saturday to work together for peace, “born of encounter and dialogue” not weapons or fear.

Humanity needs the “reserves of goodness present in human hearts” to confront the many challenges facing the world community, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, declared in his video address to the high-level General Debate of the UN General Assembly on Saturday.

Independent UN human rights experts on Friday urged Canadian authorities and the Holy See of the Catholic Church to conduct prompt “full-fledged investigations” into a mass grave found in British Columbia containing the remains of over 200 children at a residential school for indigenous students, who had been forcibly taken from their homes.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a trial, but also “a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not”, Pope Francis told world leaders on Friday, in his virtual address to the UN General Assembly. 

The Observer of the Holy See, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary of Relations with States, speaking on the final day of the United Nations General Assembly’s annual debate praised this year’s theme – ‘Focusing on People: Striving for peace and a decent life on a sustainable planet’– saying that Pope Francis “never tires of insisting on people first, especially those who suffer, those who are excluded, marginalized and left behind.”