Pope Expected to Assail ‘Might Is Right’ at U.N.

German born Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to visit New York to address the United Nations next week, where it is expected that he will assail “might is right,” in a peace message, according to a Papal envoy.

With sections of the sky, water and streets sealed off next week, Pope Benedict XVI will arrive to address the United Nations General Assembly, April 18.

Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's permanent observer at the U.N. said the Pontiff, “won't necessarily touch upon specific crises in the world… but will assail the notion that ‘might is right.’”

Speaking before an audience comprised of journalists and nongovernmental organization, the Archbishop added,

“we cannot build our future on a simple balance of power…, our future must be based on respect for universal truths and our common humanity.”

Noting that 2008 is the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and that Pope Benedict has “often spoken of the need for respect for rights, including religious freedom,” Migliore added he anticipated the Pontiff to continue “highlighting and insisting on essential values and fundamental rights,” as he has often since attaining the Papal Throne.

While the Holy See isn’t expected to discuss specific world trouble spots, his speech will undoubtedly come under much scrutiny from all sides for any references to current hot spots.

It was just last April, in his annual Easter Message that the Pope said, “nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees.”

By June, he and President Bush met at the Vatican where the Pontiff raised “the worrisome situation in Iraq,” concerning Christians inside Iraq being mistreated by the Muslim majority. Papal opposition to the Iraq invasion preceded Pope Benedict ascension.

After the senseless kidnap and death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, Pope Benedict issued his strongest condemnation to date with, “Enough with the slaughters. Enough with the violence. Enough with the hatred in Iraq!” He added that Rahho's “dedication to the Church and his death compelled him to raise a strong and sorrowful cry to denounce the violence in Iraq spawned by the war that he said had destroyed civilian life.”

Well before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Iraqi Christians were expressing concern over the rise of radical Islam in both the Shia and Sunni communities. Archbishop Rahho expressed unease in 2006 at the inclusion of “some aspects of sharia law in the new Iraqi constitution.”

It was in September 2006 that Pope Benedict came under extreme condemnation from Muslims when he included a quote from Manuel II Paleologus, a Byzantine emperor uttered six centuries ago, in a speech he made in Germany.

Within days and after attacks upon churches in Muslim countries, threats of suicide attacks against the Vatican itself and even a fatwa against the Pope, Benedict issued his “regrets” for the quote to Muslims, shortly followed by his stressing respect for Islam.

His regret stopped short of an apology, being met with mixed reaction from Islamic leaders.

The Pope now comes before the United Nations World Body to speak for peace and against “might is right.” Much can be expected to be made of the speech against the U.S. involvement in Iraq and fighting radical Jihadists around the globe, by anti-war groups.

To this writer, it is a shame that the Holy See fails to realize that the very ones exercising “might is right” by suicide bombings, terrorist plots, enslavement of people and denial of even the most basic of human rights to inhabitants, aren’t even members of the United nations, but rather a growing group of radical Jihadists.

Surely this is a “just war” if ever there was one. John 15:13 Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.