A webinar featuring Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, Joseph Cornelius Donnelly, Caritas Internationalis UN Delegate, Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard Law School, Former US Ambassador to the Holy See and Paolo Carozza, University of Notre Dame.

Via Zoom presented by the Lumen Christi Institute, America Media, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations and the Nova Forum.

Historically, the Bishop of Rome and the diplomats representing the Holy See have played important roles in international affairs involving Empires and Kingdoms, sometimes in making war, sometimes negotiating marriages and alliances, ideally in making peace. With the loss of the Papal States in 1870 and the creation of, first, the League of Nations, and later, the United Nations, the Holy See has continued to play an important—and sometimes contested—role. Of course, lay Catholics played an important role in founding the UN—as they did for the EU and in writing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This panel discussion explores the history of the Holy See’s relations with the United Nations, the role of lay Catholics and Church leaders in developing the human rights tradition, and the growing role of Catholic NGOs as they work alongside the UN for justice, peace, religious freedom, and integral human development around the world.