On December 10, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, gave an intervention a side event entitled, “Leaders for Peace: Rondine Youth Appeal for Human Rights,” held at UN Headquarters in New York. Because Archbishop Auza was in Katowice, Poland, representing the Holy See at the 24th Session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, his remarks were read by Msgr. Tomasz Grysa of the Holy See.

In his remarks, Archbishop Auza recalled, on the seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), that that Declaration, and the United Nations itself, were responses to two world wars, genocides and other barbarities. The UDHR proclaimed that the foundation of peace in the world is “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family,” a recognition, he said, that the Rondine Cittadella della Pace (RCP) has been helping young people from conflict situations achieve for 20 years. At the heart of Rondine’s methodology, he said, was to convert dehumanized “enemies” into dignified brothers. He said that Pope Francis has given his support, sympathy and blessing to the Leaders for Peace appeal sponsored by the RCP and encouraged its diffusion.

The statement can be found here.