U.N. Secretary-General
António Guterres To be Honored
at May 20 Path to Peace Gala
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres will be awarded the prestigious Path to Peace Award by Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and President of the Path to Peace Foundation, at the Foundations’s annual gala, May 20, at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan.
“This year during the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, the Path to Peace Foundation will honor the United Nations’ work for peace during the last 75 years and support its continuing efforts to bring an end to hostilities,” said Archbishop Caccia.
“The first pillar of the U.N. Charter, written as World War II horrors were concluding, is to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.’ During the past 75 years, the United Nations has worked to make and build lasting peace, which must be achieved anew by every generation,” Archbishop Caccia added.
He also indicated that the Path to Peace Foundation will honor the particular contributions of Secretary-General Guterres “for his many years of service in the cause of peace, as the ninth Secretary-General, and previously as United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Prime Minister of Portugal, and in multiple other roles stretching back decades.”
Prior to Christmas in 2019, Mr. Guterres met with Pope Francis in the Vatican and together they recorded an unprecedented joint appeal that the peace on earth and good will to all men and women marked by Jesus’ birth might irradiate all situations of war and places where human dignity is violated.
Mr. Guterres will be the third U.N. Secretary-General of the United Nations to receive the Path to Peace Award, following Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1993) and Kofi Annan (2000). The award has been bestowed on Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses, Presidents and Prime Ministers, Vatican Secretaries of State, Ambassadors, Grand Masters, courageous Archbishops, and heroes in the humanitarian and peace-building fields.
The Path to Peace Foundation was established in 1991 to support the Holy See Mission and spread the message of peace by which the Catholic Church, through the words and activities of the Pope and of the Holy See, strives to “guide our steps into the path of peace” (Lk 1:79). Legally independent from but united with the Holy See Mission, the Foundation is tax-exempt 501c3 foundation.
Funds raised allow the Path to Peace Foundation to keep a vigorous presence at the United Nations and help bring the light of Catholic Social teaching to problems in the world. It also keeps at the forefront of considerations matters of conscience, peace, justice, the dignity of every person, interreligious harmony, the good of the family, the poor and the environment.
For further information:
www.holyseemission.org/rsvpPathtoPeaceGala2020
Holy See Mission
Side Events Cancelled
as UN scales back CSW
On February 28, a letter was sent from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to Member and Observer States with a recommendation to amend the format of the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) following the global outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). Mr. Guterres stated that “we must take into account the advice from the World Health Organization with regard to the global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation.”
The CSW was originally due to last from March 9 to March 20. It normally welcomes more than 10,000 delegates from States, UN entities and non-governmental organizations from around the world each year.
On Monday, March 2, the Commission on the Status of Women decided to limit the event to a procedural meeting that will be held on March 9 and will be limited to statements from the chairperson, Mher Margaryan, Permanent Representative of Armenia, Mr. Guterres, the President of the General Assembly, Tijjani Muhammad Bande, and several other high-level UN officials, followed by the adoption of a political declaration and action on any other draft resolutions.
The Commission decided that all other CSW events will be suspended until further notice: no general debate will take place, and the planned side events will be cancelled. Member and Observer States will be represented by their New York-based Permanent Missions to the UN.
The Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See was planning four side events during the 64th Session of the CSW, including a keynote event on the role of the Holy See at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, the 25th anniversary of which is being marked during the upcoming CSW.
IMG