Pope Francis Addresses United Nations General Assembly Friday Sep 25,2015

 

Pope Francis's speech marked the largest gathering of dignitaries in the UN's 70-year history and attendees

Pope Francis delivered a 40-minute-long impassioned plea to the United Nations on Friday Sep 25,2015, calling for an end to nuclear weapons and urging nations to protect unborn children.

'An ethics and a law based on the threat of mutual destruction – and possibly the destruction of all mankind – are self-contradictory,' he warned. 

'There is urgent need to work for a world free of nuclear weapons, in full application of the non-proliferation treaty, in letter and spirit, with the goal of a complete prohibition of these weapons.'

 

Pope Francis expressed his hope that the nuclear deal struck by a handful of Western nations with Iran would hold up over time, 'be lasting and efficacious and bring forth the desired fruits with the cooperation of all the parties involved.'

His speech touched on global warming, Christian persecution in the Middle East, drug trafficking and a 'Pandora's Box' that's opened when opportunistic nations abuse the UN with 'ulterior motives.'

In an appeal for the 'sacredness of every human life,' Francis urged more than 160 world leaders to protect 'the poor, the elderly, children, the infirm, the unborn, the unemployed, the abandoned, those considered disposable because they are only considered as part of a statistic.'

Pope Francis addressed turmoil in the Middle East, framing the refugee crisis as the product of Christian persecution at the hands of religious majorities in the Muslim world. 

Pope Francis, left, was greeted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, right, at the organization's building in New York City Friday morning, ahead of his address of the general assembly 

 

Pope Francis signed a guestbook in Secretary General Ban Ki-moon 's office

Pope Francis addressed more than 160 world leaders in his native Spanish

 

Pope Francis, the fourth pope to speak before the U.N., had a private meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and separate meetings with U.N. and Vatican officials, as well as current and former presidents of the U.N. General Assembly.

Before the speech,Pope Francis spoke privately to U.N. staff members, praising them for their "quiet and devoted work."

Pope Paul VI was the first pontiff to speak before the General Assembly in 1965 in the middle of the Cold War, as the threat of nuclear war gripped the world, and his message was one of peace

Pope John Paul II continued that quest for peace in 1979, while the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in an arms race

In 1995, John Paul spoke at the UN against the backdrop of ethnic tensions in the Balkans and Central Africa. The pope underlined the "fundamental commonality" of all people.