JOHN PAUL II WARNS COUNCIL OF EUROPE ABOUT A CONTRADICTION

Says Human Rights Must Extend to the Right to Life

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 3, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- In an address to delegates of the Council of Europe, John Paul II denounced a contradiction of the age: recognition of, and demand for, human rights at a time when the right to life is denied the unborn.

The Holy Father spoke on the subject this morning when he received 200 delegates of the 41 members of the Council of Europe in the Vatican's Clementine Hall.

The delegates are meeting in Rome today and Saturday to participate in the ministerial conference of the organization and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the European Convention on the Rights of Man.

In his address, which he delivered in English, the Pope noted that the convention was signed in Rome on Nov. 4, 1950, when, after "the Second World War, the Council of Europe adopted a new political vision and embodied a new juridical order, enshrining the principle that respect for human rights transcends national sovereignty and cannot be subordinated to political aims or compromised by national interests."

"In so doing," the Pope said, "the council helped to lay the foundation for the moral recovery needed after the ravages of the war, and the European Convention on Human Rights proved a vital element of that process. The convention was a truly historic document, and it remains a unique legal instrument, seeking to proclaim and safeguard the fundamental rights of every citizen of the signatory states."

The Council of Europe is the oldest of the political organizations of Western Europe. It was created in 1949 to foster the social and economic progress of member countries, and to realize together the ideals and principles of the European union. Its Statute, which was signed on May 5, 1949, in London, establishes two bodies: a Committee of Ministers and a Parliamentary Assembly with headquarters in Strasbourg, France

The council members, initially 10, have quadrupled, a significant fact for John Paul II, who said that "the new democracies of Eastern Europe turned to the Council of Europe as the focus of unity for all the peoples of the continent, a unity which cannot be conceived without the religious and moral values that are the common heritage of all the European nations."

"At the heart of our common European heritage -- religious, cultural and juridical -- is the notion of the inviolable dignity of the human person, which implies inalienable rights conferred not by governments or institutions but by the Creator alone, in whose image human beings have been made," John Paul II explained.

Given the Council of Europe's commitment to the service of human rights, the Pope pointed out the need to address some problems with clarity, among which is, in the first place, "the tendency to separate human rights from their anthropological foundation -- that is, from the vision of the human person that is native to European culture."

In the second place, the Pontiff denounced "the tendency to interpret rights solely from an individualistic perspective, with little consideration of the role of the family as the fundamental unit of society."

This leads to a paradox, John Paul II said. On the "one hand," he noted, "the need to respect human rights is vigorously affirmed while, on the other, the most basic of them all -- the right to life -- is denied."

The Bishop of Rome applauded the success of the Council of Europe in abolishing the death penalty from the legislation of the great majority of member states. However, he hoped that this "noble achievement" might extend to the rest of the world.

"It is my fervent hope," he said, "that the moment will soon come when it will be equally understood that an enormous injustice is committed when innocent life in the womb of the mother is not safeguarded.

"This radical contradiction is possible only when freedom is sundered from the truth inherent in the reality of things, and democracy divorced from transcendent values."

Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini opened the conference of the Council of Europe. He referred to the great present evolution of the globalization of economics, the media, and scientific and technological discoveries.

"We are moving toward a new order of reality," he said, but then cautioned his audience that "life is the most precious gift we have." ZE00110307

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