A Reporter’s Notebook New York, Saturday, April 19
Blog
Our Friend in Rome
Accompanying Pope Benedict at most of his official stops in Washington and New York has been Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State.
The Knights of Columbus got to know Cardinal Bertone as a special guest at the Order’s 125th Supreme Convention last August in Nashville, Tennessee.
His open, honest and joyful presence was an inspiration to all Knights, who especially remember his jubilant participation at the States Dinner, where he joined in the spirit by waving a hand-held Vatican flag and singing along with various state songs.
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| Cardinal Bertone with Pope Benedict XVI |
Knights also recall with gratitude his heartfelt words on our founder Father Michael J. McGivney, whom he called an exemplary parish priest who, in founding the Knights of Columbus in 1882, anticipated by almost a century the Second Vatican Council’s call for a greater role of the laity within the Catholic Church. Cardinal Bertone also told us in Nashville that he took a personal interest in Father McGivney’s cause for canonization.
As the pope travels, the camera occasionally catches Bertone in the background, and his effusive smile and open personality comes through even in the brief time he appears on the screen. Knights made a friend of Cardinal Bertone during the days he graced our convention, and we are proud to welcome him to the United States once again.
Of New Things
Echoing the words of the Church’s first social encyclical Rerum Novarum (Of New Things, 1893), Pope Benedict told the assembly, “As history proceeds, new situations arise, and the attempt is made to link them to new rights.”
But “discernment, the capacity to distinguish good from evil, becomes more essential.” Such discernment, he added, requires that at times individual states must not be left alone to deal with situations of rights and safety, since sometimes governments themselves violate human life and dignity.
In such cases a body such as the United Nations must intervene, but it must do so from a perspective a natural moral law and religious ethics, lest the UN become simply another political body mediating the conflicting interests of its member states.
“The Holy Father always points out relativism when he sees it,” said Patrick Kelly, vice president for public relations for the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council. “He is saying that relativism denies the right of individuals and communities and does violence to the tenets expressed in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.”
Will UN Listen?
Pope Benedict’s address to the General Assembly marked the fourth time a pope has appeared before the General Assembly. Will his words have practical effect?
In recent decades the UN has moved in directions supporting abortion under the term “reproductive rights”, population control through contraception and destructive research on human embryos.
Piero Tozzi, vice president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-Fam), which monitors the United Nations, said that the Holy Father’s address will have an effect that may not be immediately evident.
“The delegates will be discussing his points,” said Tozzi, who is a Knight of New Hyde Park (NY) Council 2852. “We have a window of opportunity that we must take advantage of to continue to present to delegates the Catholic viewpoint on the host of issues that the Holy Father raised. The standing ovation they gave him was more than just politeness. I think it showed openness to the pope’s message about transcendent and universal truths that must underlie all international efforts for peace and justice.”
This may be the “Catholic moment” at the United Nations.
Marriage Advocate
Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, which receives major funding from the Knights of Columbus, was encouraged by the Holy Father’s words to the U.S. bishops in Washington: “It is your task to proclaim boldly the arguments from faith and reason in favor of the institution of marriage.”
"We are very grateful the pope chose to use this special opportunity to communicate clearly the importance of marriage to children, to the faith community, and to the common good," said Gallagher. For more information, visit www.nationformarriage.org.
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