VATICAN - Holy See confirms commitment to fighting all racism and discrimination, from protection for migrants, women, and children to denouncing eugenics

Geneva (Agenzia Fides) – The Holy See “shares in the aspiration of the international community to overcome all forms of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia,” as they are “evils that corrode the social fabric of society and produce innumerable victims.” This is one of the central statements made in a speech given yesterday, April 22, by the Holy See's Permanent Observer at the U.N. Offices in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, during the Conference on Racism that concludes today in the city.
The Archbishop mentioned that the Vatican's commitment “in combating all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in a spirit of cooperation.” He also recalled the Holy See's active participation in the Durban Conference in 2001 and “without hesitation, gave its moral support to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) in the full knowledge that combating racism is a necessary and indispensable prerequisite for the construction of governance, sustainable development, social justice, democracy and peace in the world.”
The Vatican representative also called for “full implementation of religious freedom for individuals and their collective exercise of this basic human right.” Archbishop Tomasi later addressed other aspects of the debate over the issues of racism and other social and cultural discrimination. Although modern globalization leads people and culture to grow closer to one another, it is not in and of itself an antidote against racism, which in fact “continues to exist” in contemporary society. “The stranger and those who are different too often are rejected to the point that barbarous acts are committed against them, including genocide and ethnic cleansing.”
“Old forms of exploitation give way to new ones: women and children are trafficked in a contemporary form of slavery, irregular immigrants are abused, persons perceived to be or who in fact are different become, in disproportionate numbers, the victims of social and political exclusion, ghetto conditions and stereotyping.”
The Archbishop then touched on the question of eugenics as a new and dangerous form of discrimination. In the current historical period, the Holy See is also alarmed by the “still latent temptation” of eugenics that can be fueled by techniques of artificial procreation and the use of 'superfluous embryos.'” “The possibility of choosing the colour of the eyes or other physical characteristic of a child could lead to the creation of a "subcategory of human beings" or the elimination of human beings that do not fulfill the characteristics predetermined by a given society.” (Mtp) (Agenzia Fides 23/4/2009)