How the Catholic Church came to have a voice at the UN

Permanent observer status was granted to the Holy See in 1964 -- and formalized 40 years later.

The Catholic Church has a definite presence at the United Nations.

This week, after heads of state and other high-level government officials from around the world gathered in New York City for the General Debate of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations marked its 60 years of presence at the world body.

The Holy See – the Vatican – established a mission to the UN just 19 years after its founding at the end of the Second World War and in the midst of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Holding “observer” rather than full member status, it does not have a vote at the UN. But it does have a voice.

According to its website, the Holy See Mission to the United Nations seeks to place at the disposal of the UN the centuries-long experience of the Church and assist the world body in its work for peace, justice, human dignity, and humanitarian cooperation and assistance.

“The experience and activity of the Holy See is directed towards attaining freedom for every believer and seeks to increase the protection of the rights of every person, rights which are grounded and shaped by the transcendent nature of the person, which permit men and women to pursue their journey of faith and their search for God in this world,” the mission statement says.

Human dignity, religious freedom, etc.

In particular, the Holy See Mission works to advance freedom of religion and respect for the sanctity of all human life, it says, “and thus all aspects of authentic human development including, for example, marriage and family, the primary role of parents, adequate employment, solidarity with the poor and suffering, ending violence against women and children, poverty eradication, food, basic healthcare and education.”

Its voice is heard through interventions that the permanent observer is able to deliver during the body’s deliberations and in “side events” it sponsors on a variety of issues during UN conferences.

This past year, for example, the Holy See Mission mounted symposia on topics such as human trafficking, surrogacy, and Down syndrome.

It was UN Secretary-General U Thant who first invited the Holy See to send an observer to the United Nations, in 1964. Over the past 60 years, the Holy See has been represented at the UN by six representatives of the pope, known as a “permanent observer.” The first was Msgr. Alberto Giovannetti, a Church historian who had written in defense of Pope Pius XII in regards to his wartime actions. Giovannetti’s first big “job” in Turtle Bay was to coordinate the New York visit of Pope Paul VI and his address to the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1965.

Popes at the podium

That address is perhaps best remembered for Paul VI’s plea of “Never again war!” He was speaking during the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War and just three years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is thought to have brought the world to the precipice of nuclear war.

Giovannetti was succeeded in 1973 by Archbishop Giovanni Cheli, an expert on the problems the Vatican encountered relating to the communist nations of Eastern Europe. He served at the UN for 13 years. During his tenure, in 1979, Pope John Paul II addressed the General Assembly, as Paul VI had done almost exactly 14 years earlier.

Cardinal Renato Martino was appointed in 1986 and served for 16 years. Martino opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq in 1991 and subsequent sanctions. He represented the Holy See at the international conference on population in Cairo in 1994 and the Beijing conference on women the following year, working to form coalitions of “conservative” nations that opposed abortion.

Pope John Paul II returned to New York in 1995, addressing the General Assembly once more.

John Paul appointed Archbishop Celestino Migliore to become permanent observer in 2002. Migliore coordinated the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to address the General Assembly in 2008.

According to author Victor Gaetan, writing in the book God’s Diplomats: Pope Francis, Vatican Diplomacy, and America’s Armageddon, Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked Migliore if Rome would consider applying for full membership in the UN. But Pope John Paul II believed that such a status would put the Holy See’s impartiality at risk. Nevertheless, he wanted to formalize the permanent observer status, which had heretofore been based on U Thant’s letter of welcome.

“On July 1, 2004, the General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution outlining the Holy See’s contributions while expanding its privileges,” Gaetan wrote.

In the past, there have been other states with observer status. In May, the UN voted to allow Palestine to have full member status, leaving the Holy See as the only permanent observer at the UN.

Pope Benedict appointed Migliore’s successor, Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, who was the first non-Italian to serve in the post. The native of India had served as nuncio to Iraq (and Jordan) during some of its most difficult days.

Another non-Italian, Archbishop Bernadito Auza, succeeded Chullikatt in 2014. The Filipino prelate had been nuncio to Haiti in 2010, when a major earthquake devastated the country, claiming some 316,000 lives, including three key Port-au-Prince archdiocesan leaders. Auza took a leading role in stabilizing and helping rebuild the Church in Haiti.

In 2015, Pope Francis, who had sent Auza to New York, became the latest pope to address the UN General Assembly.

Currently, the permanent observer is Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, 66, a priest of the Archdiocese of Milan who has served the Church’s diplomatic mission at the Vatican, and in Lebanon, the Philippines, and Tanzania. He has been at the UN since 2019.