The Holy Father’s message was sent to
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, archivist and
librarian of the Holy Roman Church, who is
currently in Paris representing the Holy See at a
colloquium entitled "Culture, Reason and Freedom",
commemorating the anniversary of the late John
Paul’s UNESCO.
Pope Benedict’s letter noted the "immense
recognition due to Pope John Paul who, with his
personal and cultural experience, always
underlined in his teachings the central and
irreplaceable position of man, as well as his
fundamental dignity, the source all of his
inalienable rights.”
“Twenty-five years ago”, he said, “the Pope
declared at UNESCO headquarters that 'in the
cultural domain, man is always first: man is the
primordial and basic fact of culture'."
The Holy Father also echoed John Paul's
words to UNESCO, reminding members of their
responsibility to, "Build peace by starting with
the foundation: respect for all of man's rights,
those linked to his material and economic
dimension as well as those linked to the spiritual
and interior dimension of his existence in this
world."
Pope Benedict stressed the Vatican’s
concern for and involvement in the work of UNESCO,
through her permanent observer to the
organization, saying that, "in a world which is
both multiple and divided, and often submissive to
the strong demands of globalization of economic
relations and, even more, of information, it is
important at the highest levels to mobilize the
energies of intelligence so that man's rights to
education and culture are recognized, especially
in the poorest countries.”
“In a world where man must learn more and
more to recognize and to respect his brother,” the
Pope continued, “the Church wishes to make her own
contribution to the service of the human
community, while pointing out ... the relation
that binds each person to the Creator of all life
and the source of the inalienable dignity of each
person, from conception to life's natural
end."
