Institutions and rights

On the morning of Wednesday 8 September, Benedict XVI received in audience the Office of Presidency of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which together with the Committee of Ministers is one of the two main statutory organs of the Council of Europe. PACE was the first European assembly in the history of the continent; with 318 members elected or designated by the national Parliaments, it is formed by the delegations of the 47 Parliaments of member states, representatives of their various parties or political groups. It meets at Strasbourg four times each year. On its order of the day are current developments and emergencies of European society and policy, which are tackled from the perspective of the defence of human rights. The Assembly’s Bureau consists of the President of PACE, 19 Vice-Presidents, the heads of 5 political groups and the chairmen of the 10 commissions of PACE. The Holy See attends the work of the Assembly thanks to its status of Observer at the Council of Europe. The current President of PACE is the Turk Mevlüt Çavusoglu, a Muslim, born in 1968. In his greeting to the Pope, Çavusoglu underlined the contribution of religions and inter-religious dialogue to the defence of human dignity and thanked Benedict XVI for his initiatives in support of inter-religious dialogue.Fruitful dialogue. “I am happy to receive you on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the European Convention of Human Rights, which commits the member states of the Council of Europe to promote and defend the inviolable dignity of the human person”, declared Benedict XVI on receiving the Office of Presidency of PACE. “I know that the Parliamentary Assembly has on its agenda important issues linked to persons who are living in particularly difficult situations or subjected to grave violations of their dignity”, continued the Holy Father, and “I have also been informed about your efforts to defend religious freedom and oppose violence and intolerance against believers in Europe and in the world”. In the Pope’s view, “it’s imperative to develop the universality of these rights, as also their inviolability inalienability and indivisibility”. Moreover, he added “I have repeatedly warned of the risks associated with relativism in the field of values, rights and duties” because “if these were to lack a rational or objective foundation, common to everyone, and if they were to be based solely on particular cultures, legislations or judgements, how could they offer a solid and lasting basis for supranational institutions like the Council of Europe” and “how could a fruitful dialogue take place between cultures without common values or stable and universal rights and principles?” According to the Pope “these values, rights and duties are rooted in the natural dignity of each person, who is accessible to human reason” and “the Christian faith does not hamper, but favours this search and is an invitation to seek a supranational basis for this dignity”. In this sense, concluded Benedict XVI, “I am convinced that these principles, faithfully respected especially in questions linked to human life, from conception to natural death, to marriage based on the exclusive and indissoluble love between a man and a woman, and to freedom of religion and of education, are essential prerequisites to respond adequately to the crucial challenges that history presents to each one of us”.Universality of values. In commenting on the Holy Father’s words in a briefing to SIR Europe, Mgr. Aldo Giordano, Permanent Observer of the Holy See at the Council of Europe, said that “this audience too demonstrates the interest that the institutions take in the Pope, due to the authoritativeness of his message and teaching and due to the collaboration that the Holy See offers at the international level”. What arouses “the interest of the Parliament and its executive”, explains Mgr. Giordano, is that “the Catholic Church is simultaneously characterized by universality and by the unity expressed in the figure of the Pope, as well as by her widespread local presence and activity in every corner of Europe and the world”. It is “this that makes the Church’s presence in the institutions original and her contribution unique”. Referring to the Holy Father’s words, Mgr. Giordano explained: “Benedict XVI drew attention to two dimensions that are at the very heart not only of the Church, but also of the work of the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly: first, the need to promote and defend the dignity of the human person, in particular by devoting attention to all those situations of disadvantage and violence, in which human dignity is violated”. The second dimension highlighted by Benedict XVI, continued Mgr. Giordano, is “religious freedom, a fundamental right that permits the full realization of all human rights because it opens up a transcendent horizon sufficiently solid and wide to provide a foundation for all rights”. On the agenda of the Council of Europe, he added, “there are concerns that are also the object of the social care of the Church”. Moreover, “the Pope made an interesting invitation to reflect on the foundation of rights, duties and values in relation to pluralism: is there a universality of values or do they depend on the contingent historical and cultural circumstances in which they are inserted? Are they objective or contextual? The answer to this question is of crucial importance if authoritativeness is to be given to international organizations such as the Council of Europe (or the UNO), which might not exist at all if there were not any universal recognition of values”. And with regard to the final words of the Holy Father’s address, Mgr. Giordano concluded: “Europe is faced by historic challenges, in essence that of understanding anew its role, responsibility and contribution in the world today. To the question ‘what is the richness of European history that this continent can offer?’, Benedict XVI replies: the defence of human life, marriage based on love between a man and a woman, and religious freedom”.