U.N. Secretary General to Meet Pope Next Week
The Vatican says Ban Ki-moon will meet the Holy Father April 9, at the end of his official visit to Europe.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis will welcome United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the Vatican next week, his first private audience with a world leader since his inauguration.
The South Korean U.N. chief will be making an unscheduled visit to the Vatican on Tuesday, April 9, the Vatican confirmed to the Register. His visit will come at the end of an official European trip that has included stops in San Marino, Andorra, Monaco, Spain and the Netherlands.
Increasing tensions on the Korean peninsula are expected to top the agenda, as well as the conflict in Syria and conflicts in other parts of the Middle East and Africa.
A Vatican official told the Register that the U.N. position with the Holy See, which has permanent observer status at the international body, will remain “unchanged,” and Pope Francis is expected to deal with the organization in the same way as his predecessors.
Under the new Pope, the Holy See will continue to help promote and coordinate those areas on which the U.N. and the Holy See agree, such as poverty reduction and battling human and drug trafficking, the official said. But it will also continue to denounce core U.N. positions that are against life, such as promotion of abortion and the homosexual agenda.
In his traditional urbi et orbi Easter message, Pope Francis called for peace in the Middle East, especially for “dear Syria,” as well as among Israelis and Palestinians and in Iraq. He expressed his concern for victims of conflict and terrorism in Mali, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, and he appealed for peace and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula.
The Pope also condemned greed and selfishness, particularly that which leads to human trafficking and drug trafficking and the “iniquitous exploitation” of natural resources.
Edward Pentin Edward Pentin is the Register’s Senior Contributor and EWTN News Vatican Analyst. He began reporting on the Pope and the Vatican with Vatican Radio before moving on to become the Rome correspondent for EWTN's National Catholic Register. He has also reported on the Holy See and the Catholic Church for a number of other publications including Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald, and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specializing in the Church and the Middle East. Edward is the author of The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates (Sophia Institute Press, 2020) and The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? An Investigation into Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family (Ignatius Press, 2015). Follow him on Twitter at @edwardpentin.
