On December 19, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, gave a Statement of Position after the adoption of the resolution to endorse the outcome of the International Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM).

In his statement, Archbishop Auza praised the GCM as a comprehensive framework and international reference point for best practices and international cooperation for the global management of migration. While the Holy See voted in favor of the adoption of the GCM in Marrakech, and welcomed the resolution of the General Assembly, Archbishop Auza said it wished to make four reservations: first, the Holy See vigorously and consistently called for the deletion of three documents that were not the outcome of intergovernmental negotiations and contain terminology, principles and guidelines that are not agreed language; second, the Holy See understands the expressions “sexual and reproductive health” and “sexual and reproductive health-care services” used in those documents as not referring to abortion, abortion access or abortifacients; third, the Holy See rejects the “minimal initial service package” (MISP) referred to in one of these documents because some MISP kits contain abortifacients and abortion inducing tools; and fourth, the Holy See understands “gender” to be grounded in biological identity, male or female.

The statement can be found here.