Pope Benedict and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Mary Ann Glendon, the new US Ambassador to the Vatican was on hand to greet the Pope when he arrived this afternoon at Andrew's Air Force Base.
But her presence was significant in more than one way. In her former life, Glendon was not only Professor of Law at Harvard University, she is also an expert in the history of international human rights law and wrote A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This is significant because the Universal Declaration of Human Rights emerged out of and was heavily influenced by Catholic Social Teaching, Catholic intellectuals like Jacques Maritain helped draft it, and 2008 marks its 60th anniversary. It's worth reading the UDH's 30 articles to see how the Catholic understanding of the human person permeates it all. It is supposedly the most translated document in human history.
Russell Shaw has a nice introductory piece on the UDHR and its importance for the Pope and his upcoming address to the UN.
posted by Sherry W @ 4:29 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Unfortunately, as Prof. Glendon would no doubt say, the document has been used in ways that stray far from such noble origins. She's got some great stories to tell about the history of that document as she was granted access to the private journals of one of the committee members that drafted it. I remember when she first talked about it, I thought that was the direction her book was going to take. I need to take that book off my shelf and read it.
Hi Jack:
Yes, we have strayed. I have read large parts of Glendon's book and I think it was Charles Malik's private journal that she saw. Malik was a remarkable Orthodox lay theologian whose brother was a Catholic priest and who worked very extensively in ecumenical circles.
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