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  • Title: Church and state at the United Nations. A case of the emperor's new clothes.
    Author: Kissling F, Shannon D.
    Journal: Conscience; 1996; 16(4):11-2. PubMed ID: 12178922.
    Abstract:
    The Vatican invested considerable effort in the attempt to scuttle the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. The Catholic Church's involvement in the conference was highly obstructive. Many are increasingly wondering why a religion has a state-like presence in the international arena and have circulated petitions to have the UN look into the issue. The Vatican owes its participation in the UN to happenstance and diplomatic deference. It began with the membership of the Vatican City in the Universal Postal Union and the International Telecommunication Union, which the city-state joined before World War II due to its operation of postal and radio services. The UN, soon after its formation, invited these organizations and their members to attend UN sessions on an ad hoc basis. In 1964, Pope Paul VI named a permanent observer to the UN and UN Secretary-General U Thant simply accepted the designation and announced it soon thereafter. The Holy See therefore joins Switzerland as one of two Non-Member State Permanent Observers at the UN. The Pope addresses the General Assembly as the head of the Holy See, the supreme organ of government of both the Catholic Church and the Vatican City. The Vatican City, however, has only a weak claim to a seat in the UN, while the Holy See is an even more nebulous, religious construct with no claim at all.
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