Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – On the sixtieth anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Holy Father Benedict XVI held an audience (following the General Audience of Wednesday, September 8) with the Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In his speech, the Pontiff mentioned that the work of the Parliamentary Assembly touches a series of important themes, which above all regard the persons who live in particularly difficult situations or undergo severe violations of their dignity. “I have also been informed of your efforts to defend religious freedom and to oppose violence and intolerance against believers in Europe and worldwide,” the Pope said. “Keeping in mind the context of today’s society in which different peoples and cultures come together, it is imperative to develop the universal validity of these rights as well as their inviolability, inalienability and indivisibility.”
Benedict XVI then mentioned the “risks associated with relativism in the area of values, rights and duties.” He added: “These values, rights and duties are rooted in the natural dignity of each person, something which is accessible to human reasoning. The Christian faith does not impede, but favours this search, and is an invitation to seek a supernatural basis for this dignity.”
Concluding his address, the Holy Father affirmed: “I am convinced that these principles, faithfully maintained, above all when dealing with human life, from conception to natural death, with marriage – rooted in the exclusive and indissoluble gift of self between one man and one woman – and freedom of religion and education, are necessary conditions if we are to respond adequately to the decisive and urgent challenges that history presents to each one of you.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 9/9/2010)
