Vatican City, Jun 1, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Today the Vatican released a letter from Pope Benedict XVI, commemorating John Paul’s visit, 25 years ago to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and reiterating the Church’s belief that true peace can only be reached by promoting human dignity, from conception until natural death.
The Holy Father’s message was sent to Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church, who is currently in Paris representing the Holy See at a colloquium entitled "Culture, Reason and Freedom", commemorating the anniversary of the late John Paul’s UNESCO.
Pope Benedict’s letter noted the "immense recognition due to Pope John Paul who, with his personal and cultural experience, always underlined in his teachings the central and irreplaceable position of man, as well as his fundamental dignity, the source all of his inalienable rights.”
“Twenty-five years ago”, he said, “the Pope declared at UNESCO headquarters that 'in the cultural domain, man is always first: man is the primordial and basic fact of culture'."