PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY UNITED STATES MISSION

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY UNITED STATES MISSION

The campaign to remove the seat of the Holy See at the United Nations “is about abortion not religion”, correspondents were told this morning at a Headquarters press conference given by a coalition of religious and civic non- governmental organizations. The press conference was sponsored by the United States Mission.

“For a long time now, this venerable institution, the United Nations, has been the playground of fundamental left-wingers”, Tom Minnery, Executive Vice- President of Focus on Family, continued. “They call themselves the forces of tolerance, but, on this issue, the right of unborn children -- the basic human right to life -- they will not tolerate a view that differs from their own and, hence, their campaign to kick the Holy See out of the United Nations.”

“In the current [United States] presidential campaign, there are some who would try to divide Catholics from Protestants, but all of us who honour God stand united in the campaign to secure the basic human right of life for all unborn children”, Mr. Minnery said.

Also speaking at the press conference were: Austin Ruse, President, Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute; Robert Maginnis, Vice-President, Family Research Council; Kathryn Balmforth, World Family Policy Center at Brigham University; Wanda Franz, National Right to Life Committee; Mary Ellen Bork, Catholic Campaign for America; and Rabbi Yehuda Levin, Jews for Morality.

Mr. Maginnis, who identified his group as an evangelical organization, said “the organized drive to expel the Vatican from observer status is anti- Catholic of the most vicious sort, and it is intended to intimidate pro-life delegates from developing countries. Unfortunately, the United States Government is indirectly complicit in this radical expulsion effort because American taxes are funding Planned Parenthood, the largest member of the expulsion effort”. He added that “if any offensive move to oust the Vatican delegation from the United Nations succeeds, I promise you that the Family Research Council will demand that the United States Congress reassess American participation in this body”.

Ms. Balmforth said that if the people of the world paid careful attention to what was going on at the United Nations, they would find that the positions of the delegates from the Holy See more closely represented their views than did the positions of the delegates from their own countries. “For that reason, I am proud to support the Holy See in its role here in the United Nations and to urge others who are like-minded to do so”, she said. “The Holy See is a voice that cannot be intimidated by the powerful countries of the Western world and that is why this campaign is aimed at them.”

Rabbi Levin, who described the United Nations as the seat of the collective values and standards and conscience of the world, said he “wished to condemn the radical group of extremists who wish to make this world body into a religion-free, value-free zone”. He likened the campaign against the Vatican to

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the efforts several decades ago “to rid the world of the Jews”, as well as of Jewish teachings and values. He called upon the United Nations and its Members to reject the attempted censorship and bigotry. “Sixty years ago, our people asked the world ‘where were you for the Jews’?; today we ask ‘where are you for the Catholics’?”

Ms. Franz who said her pro-life organization focused on education, lobbying and political action, said the Holy See had taken the role of mediator in international conflicts, where it took the position of “teacher and Christian witness to the universal principles of love, justice and peace”. As such, the Holy See held a key position in the framework of the United Nations, which was dedicated to diversity and the expression of all positions. “Those who oppose the presence of the Holy See in the United Nations do so because they are in the forefront of those encouraging a culture of death. They want free reign to export our failed abortion policies to other countries, where they force unwilling women to have abortions, even in their ninth month of pregnancy, as in China, and where they encourage sex-selection abortion to seek out and kill baby girls, as in India.” The opposition to the Holy See was a bigoted call to eliminate the diversity essential to the United Nations, she said.

Ms. Bork said the issue of the presence of the Vatican at the United Nations was being raised by a small “but very vocal” group who objected to the “truths that the Vatican stands for”. Referring to a press conference, also sponsored by the United States Mission, held at the United Nations the day before, in which Frances Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice and representatives of several other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had called for a review of the status of the Holy See at the United Nations, she said there was no room for the religious bigotry of the “Kissling enterprise” at the United Nations, which was based on democratic principles. The Vatican represented a clear moral voice for the rights of the human person, “born and unborn”.

A correspondent asked for a reaction to a comparison at yesterday’s press conference of the Holy See at the United Nations to the Politburo of the former Soviet Union. Mr. Ruse replied that “the other side” was very good at calling names. “This goes to exactly what their campaign is all about -- religious intolerance and bigotry.”

Another correspondent said that there were reports that members of the non-governmental organizations present at the conference were harassing and threatening women and delegates meeting in connection with the “Beijing + 5” follow-up conference on women . Those actions appeared to violate United Nations codes of conduct on its premises. Why did there seem to be a need to use such a strategy?

Mr. Ruse said, “This press conference is not about the “Beijing + 5” conference. It is about the attack on the Holy See by Catholics for a Free Choice. I will be happy to answer your question afterwards, but I will say flatly now that all of those charges are lies.”

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When asked what was the Vatican’s opinion of the support from Mr. Ruse and the other NGOs present, Mr. Ruse, pointing out that he neither spoke for nor worked for the Holy See, urged the correspondent to call the Holy See for a statement.

To a follow-up question, he said the resolutions on the Holy See before the United States Congress were “history in the making”. They would pass with wide margins from both parties, he said, adding that “only the most vociferous pro-abortion Congressman could possibly vote against support for the Holy See at the United Nations.”

Asked if it was a violation of United Nations regulations for an NGO on United Nations grounds to call for the removal of a Member State, Mr. Ruse said he believed it was a violation of the rules of the Economic and Social Council, and they would be formally protesting to all the ambassadors sitting on the Council’s NGO Committee.

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