A Universal Sacred Mission and the Universal Secular Organization: The Holy See and the United Nations

Abstract

Today, the Holy See has formal diplomatic relations with almost all states around the globe as well as with the United Nations (UN), where it holds the curious position of a Permanent Observer. Representing a universal sacred mission, the Holy See views the UN as one of the most important avenues in international relations for pursuing its aims. Vatican diplomats have thus been at the forefront of lobbying for human dignity at the UN in various conferences and popes have even directly addressed the UN's General Assembly. In examining relations between the Holy See and the UN, at least two issues are obvious and of primary importance. First, both institutions share a universal approach – the latter to represent all states of the world and the Holy See to represent all Catholics. Furthermore, both preach to their constituencies that they represent a universal idealist mission – to pursue peace and work towards the universalization of human rights. Second, the Holy See enjoys a Permanent Observer status within the UN and also a seemingly privileged status among all other religious communities. By adopting short studies of the Holy See's interventions in three dimensions of human rights advocacy at the UN, along with its supplement of the UN's mission in correcting capitalist development, the article concludes that the Catholic religion has returned in a role that reaffirms the possibilities of enhancing society on a globalist scale rather than merely reinforcing an international society of sovereign states.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Mr Gustav Boëthius from the Rajaratnam School's MSc Strategic Studies programme, Nanyang Technological University, for rendering invaluable research assistance for the preparation of this piece. The authors are also indebted to the two anonymous reviewers of this article who provided valuable comments for revision. Finally, appreciation is also due to Lucian Leustean for his support for this exploratory venture.

Notes

²Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church: Lumen Gentium (1964), §1.

¹UN News Centre, ‘Vatican City and UN Headquarters have Geographical Similarities, Says Pope’, 18 April 2008, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=26384&Cr=pope&Cr1#. The Catholic Church has some 1.13 billion followers; the population of the UN member states – comprising almost all states on Earth – is about 6.6 billion.

³‘A Short History of the Holy See's Diplomacy’, http://www.holyseemission.org/short_history.html

⁴Eric O. Hanson, The Catholic Church in World Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987); Giovanni Lajolo, Nature and Function of Papal Diplomacy (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005); Alan Chong, ‘Small State Soft Power Strategies: Virtual Enlargement in the Cases of the Vatican City State and Singapore’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 23:3 (2010), pp. 383–405; John F. Pollard, The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929–32: A Study in Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985); Dennis J. Dunn, ‘The Vatican's Ostpolitik: Past and Present’, Journal of International Affairs, 36:2 (1982/1983), pp. 246–255; Michael Galligan, ‘United States–Vatican Relations: Benefits and Future Precautions’, Journal of International Affairs, 38:2 (1985), pp. 336–347; Beatrice Leung, Sino-Vatican Relations: Problems in Conflicting Authority 1976–1986 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).

⁵R. Scott Appleby, ‘John Paul II’, Foreign Policy, 119 (2000), pp. 12–25.

⁶Yasmin Abdullah, ‘The Holy See at United Nations Conferences: State or Church?’, Columbia Law Review, 96:7 (1996), pp. 1835–1875.

⁷Heribert Franz Köck, Die völkerrechtliche Stellung des Heiligen Stuhls: Dargestellt an seinen Beziehungen zu Staaten und internationalen Organisationen (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1975); Romuald R. Haule, Der Heilige Stuhl/Vatikanstaat im Völkerrecht (Lohmar: Eul Verlag, 2006); Jelka Mayr-Singer, ‘Unheilige Allianz oder segensreiche Partnerschaft: Der Heilige Stuhl und die Vereinten Nationen’, Vereinte Nationen, 6 (2000), pp. 193–195.

⁸Herbert Butterfield, Christianity and History (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1950).

⁹‘International institutions’ in terms of the English School is something rather different compared with other theoretical approaches. They are historically evolved and not intentionally constructed or designed practices which are constitutive for the actors. Barry Buzan, From International to World Society?: English School Theory and the Social Structure of Globalisation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 161–204. See also Nicholas G. Onuf, ‘Institutions, Intentions and International Relations’, Review of International Studies, 28:2 (2002), pp. 211–228. Sovereignty therefore is a primary institution of international society and international law its derivative.

¹⁰Paul Sharp, Diplomatic Theory of International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 262–263.

¹¹Chong, op. cit.

¹²David Ryall, ‘How Many Divisions?: The Modern Development of Catholic International Relations’, International Relations, 14:2 (August 1998), pp. 28–31; Burkhard Josef Berkmann, Katholische Kirche und Europäische Union im Dialog für die Menschen: Eine Annäherung aus Kirchenrecht und Europarecht, Kanonistische Studien und Texte, vol. 54 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2008), p. 54; Paul Wuthe, Für Menschenrechte und Religionsfreiheit in Europa: Die Politik des Heiligen Stuhls in der KSZE/OSZE (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2002); Mayr-Singer, op. cit., p. 194.

¹³Terry Nardin, Law, Morality and the Relations of States (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983); Martin Wight, ‘Why is There no International Theory?’, in Herbert Butterfield and Martin Wight (eds) Diplomatic Investigations: Essays in the Theory of International Politics (London: Allen & Unwin, 1966).

¹⁴Mayr-Singer, op. cit., p. 195. Although not object of this article, it should be mentioned that there are occasionally debates about the status of the Vatican within the UN which call for a revision of that status. See, for example, http://www.seechange.org/. See also Kurt Martens, ‘The Position of the Holy See and the Vatican City State in International Relations’, University of Detroit Mercy Law Review, 83:5 (Summer 2006), p. 729.

¹⁵Mayr-Singer, op. cit., 193; Palena R. Neale, ‘The Bodies of Christ as International Bodies: The Holy See, Wom(B)an and the Cairo Conference’, Review of International Studies, 24:1 (1998), pp. 101–118.

¹⁶Neale, op. cit.

¹⁷United Nations General Assembly, ‘Resolution 58/314’.

¹⁸Benedikt XVI, ‘Caritas in Veritate’, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_ge.html

¹⁹Angelo Sodano, Ansprache von Kardinal Angelo Sodano beim Gipeltreffen der Staatsoberhäupter und Regierungschefs anlässlich der 60. Generalversammlung der Vereinten Nationen (New York: Vereinte Nationen, 16 September 2005), http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/2005/documents/rc_seg-st_20050916_onu_ge.html

²⁰The Social Agenda, Article Two: The Human Person, http://www.thesocialagenda.org/article2.htm#1

²³‘Apostolic Journey of His Holiness John Paul II to the United States Of America’, The Fiftieth General Assembly of the United Nations Organization. Address Of His Holiness John Paul II, 5 October 1995, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1995/october/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_05101995_address-to-uno_en.html

²⁵Pope Benedict XVI, Let God's Light Shine Forth: The Spiritual Vision of Pope Benedict XVI, edited, with an introduction by Robert Moynihan (New York: Doubleday, 2005), pp. 50–51. Authors' italics.

²¹Lajolo, op. cit., p. 22.

²²Ibid., p. 24.

²⁴Hanson, op. cit., 4–5.

²⁸Ibid., p. 52.

²⁶For overviews of this issue see, for example, Jane H. Bayes and Nayereh Esfahlani Tohidi (eds), Globalization, Gender, and Religion: The Politics of Women's Rights in Catholic and Muslim Contexts (New York: Palgrave, 2001); Doris Buss and Didi Herman, Globalizing Family Values: The Christian Right in International Politics (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2003); Jennifer S. Butler, Born Again: The Christian Right Globalized (London: Pluto Press, 2006).

²⁷Second Vatican Council, The Church in the Modern World: 8 December 1965 (Singapore: Christian Family and Social Apostolate Publications – Catholic Centre, 1965), p. 47.

³²Quoted from Neale, op. cit., p. 113.

²⁹Neale, op. cit., pp. 109–10.

³⁰Ibid., p. 111.

³¹Buss and Herman, op. cit., pp. 116–117.

³³Daniel C. Maguire, ‘94-09-08: Statement of Religious Consult. on Population, Repro …’, 8 September 1994, http://www.un.org/popin/icpd/conference/ngo/940908191658.html

³⁴Alexander Sanger, ‘94-09-13: Statement of Int. Planned Parenthood, Mr Alexander Sanger’, http://www.un.org/popin/icpd/conference/ngo/940913133849.html

³⁵Jeannette H. Johnson and Wendy Turnbull, ‘The Women's Conference: Where Aspirations and Realities met’, Family Planning Perspectives, 27:6 (1995), p. 255.

³⁶Quoted in Johnson and Turnbull, ibid., p. 255.

³⁷Patricia F. Phalen and Ece Algan, ‘Table 4: Headlines Mentioning Agents at Least Once’, Political Communication, 18:3 (2001), p. 310.

⁴²Franco, op. cit., p. 284.

³⁸Fiona J. Macaulay, ‘Cross-party Alliances around Gender Agendas: Critical Mass, Critical Actors, Critical Structures, or Critical Junctures?, 24–27 October 2005, www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/eql-men/docs/EP.12_Macaulay.pdf

³⁹Ibid.

⁴⁰Laura Guzmán Stein, ‘The Politics of Implementing Women's Rights in Catholic Countries of Latin America’, in Jane H. Bayes and Nayereh Esfahlani Tohidi (eds) Globalization, Gender, and Religion: The Politics of Women's Rights in Catholic and Muslim Contexts (New York: Palgrave, 2001), p. 148.

⁴¹Jean Franco, ‘Defrocking the Vatican: Feminism‘s secular project’, in Sonia E. Alvarez, and Evelina Dagnino (eds) Cultures of Politics – Politics of Cultures: Re-visioning Latin American Social Movements (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998).

⁴³‘Children and Armed Conflict’, Report of the Secretary-General: Fifty-Fifth Session of the UN General Assembly and Security Council A/55/163–S/2000/712, http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/55/a55163.pdf

⁴⁴‘Intervention by the Head of the Holy See Delegation at the Durban World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination Xenophobia and Related Intolerance’, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/documents/rc_seg-st_doc_20010903_durban-racism_en.html

⁴⁵Ibid. Author's italics.

⁴⁶Michael Phayer, ‘“Helping the Jews is not an Easy Thing to Do”: Vatican Holocaust Policy: Continuity or Change?’, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 21:3 (2007), pp. 421–453. See also Frank J. Coppa, ‘Between Morality and Diplomacy: The Vatican's “Silence” during the Holocaust’, Journal of Church & State, 50:3 (Summer 2008), pp. 541–568.

⁴⁷See for instance David Held, Democracy and the Gobal Oder: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995).

⁴⁸Cathy Majtenyi, ‘Should the Vatican Compensate for Colonialism/Slavery?’, African Scribe, 3:1 (2001), p. 3.

⁴⁹See Archbishop Chulikatt's biography at http://www.holyseemission.org/Chullikatt.html

⁵⁰Refer to the generic UN website: www.un.org.

⁵¹Benedikt XVI, ‘Caritas in Veritate’, op. cit. Author's italics.

⁵²Ibid.

⁵³Flavia Krause-Jackson, ‘Vatican Lists Seven Social Sins, Including Drug Abuse’, Bloomberg News, March 2008.

⁵⁴‘About – Caritas Internationalis’, http://www.caritas.org/about/Caritas_Internationalis.html

^{55 ‘}Pope John Paul II Grants Canonical Legal Status to Caritas’, http://www.caritas.org/about/CanonicalLegalStatus.html

⁵⁶‘About – Caritas Internationalis’, op. cit.

⁵⁷Caritas Internationalis, Caritas Internationalis Annual Report 2008 (Vatican: Caritas Internationalis, 2009), http://www.caritas.org/includes/pdf/annualreport08en.pdf

⁵⁸David Smock, ‘Catholic Contributions to Peace’ (United States Institute for Peace, 9 April 2001), http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital-Library/Publications/Detail/?id=43277&lng=en

⁵⁹Neale, op. cit., (note 15).

⁶⁰Ibid.

⁶¹See for instance Charles A. Manning, The Nature of International Society (New York: Wiley, 1975); Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics, 3rd edn (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002); Martin Wight, System of States (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1997).

⁶²Bull, op. cit., p. 13.