To the Responsible Officers of International Organizations (12 September 1983)
ShareOn Monday, 12 September 1983, the Holy Father addressed the responsible officers of international organizations having their headquarters in Vienna. In his speech, the Pope emphasized the need for “all these institutions and departments to work together in today's world, to be able to act constructively in the diverse and complex sectors of human life.”
Your Honorable
Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
Director-General of the Department of the United Nations
and Executive Director of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization
Representatives and officials of the various International Organizations
that have their general headquarters here in the United Nation City
To all of you I express my respect and esteem. I do so all the more willingly because I know that many members of your families are following this meeting of ours, and are deeply interested in it, just as they feel about all your respectable activities supported by them as only families know how to do it.
1. Allow me to express my sincere appreciation for the invitation to visit this place where such important institutions work to protect and promote human life in crucial sectors of human endeavor: the peaceful use of atomic energy, industrial promotion in particular in developing countries, trade laws, social and humanitarian development and the difficult problem of the fight against drugs.
All these institutions and departments testify to the pressing need to work together in today's world, to be able to act constructively in the diverse and complex sectors of human life. Taking care of these problems offers the possibility of acting for better or worse in circumstances that past generations never had to face.
This is why the first duty we share is to work together, to pool our capabilities, to come to an agreement with common effort and commitment. That is why the organizations and departments that are gathered here share the same vision and spirit that are characteristic of the United Nations as such and that, as I stated in New York in 1979, "unites and associates, it does not divide or create oppositions" ( Speech to the XXXIV UN General Assembly, 2.10.1979 ). The dominant characteristic that must distinguish your actions must be to unite and associate, not to divide and create oppositions. This characteristic is born from the spirit that gave life to your organizations. It is reinforced by the demands that the content of your fields of specialization expects of you.
2. In my Encyclical Laborem exercans I reflected on work in an objective sense and referred to the development of industry and modern technology in the variety of its expressions as "fields of action to re-propose the problem of human work in a new way" and as a set of instruments that man uses in his work. I analyzed the "fair affirmation of technique as a fundamental coefficient of economic progress" ( Laborem exercans, 5).
By reflecting on this principle and applying it to your various activities, you have been challenged to engage with new methods of examining the human-technology relationship. Only by examining the points of interaction between the human person and technology can we individualize those criteria, which should guide the present and future commitment that you are called to carry out. To this end, aware of the many elements to be taken into consideration at these points of interaction, today I would like to draw your attention to the two indispensable factors that must be constantly taken into consideration.
3. The true complexity of the subject matter of your work requires a level of training and instruction that can absorb all of your time and skill. Being the master of one of the disciplines that contribute to our knowledge of nuclear energy is a constant commitment and a vocation. For this reason, you may be tempted to let the content and methodology completely determine our vision of life, the values we embrace and the decisions we make. Therefore, due to the internal demands that these extremely complex disciplines entail, offering humanity such a great contribution, it is of utmost importance that the primacy of man be maintained as a criterion for our judgments and decisions.
Man is the subject of work and of all intellectual and scientific disciplines. Man is, after God, the measure and end of all the projects we have in mind in this world. Whether it is industrial projects for developing countries, nuclear reactors or programs implemented to improve society, the human person is the guiding principle. No project, no matter how technically perfect or industrially exact, has its justification if it endangers the dignity and rights of the people it involves. Every initiative of your organizations should be tested by the question: Is this useful to the cause of man as such?
It would not always be easy to make a similar reflection, but it is necessary. No one can deny that the complexity of industry, technology, nuclear sciences and the numerous organizations of modern society must be faced with full respect for all the components that dominate our attention. In light of this reality and aware of its potential, I want and must insist on the fact that the commitment and effort that you rightly place in intellectual, technological, scientific and educational aspects must always reach sensitivity and dedication in favor of the cause of the man we proclaim formed in the image of God, and therefore worthy of total dignity and respect.
4. The second criterion that I would like to mention in a few words puts us in the context of the world in which we live. It is the consideration that we must act for the good of the entire people, for the well-being of society, for what we traditionally define as the common good. For you, this means seeing your work as a contribution not only to a specific project or to a certain government or institution, but also a contribution to the entire world population. Therefore, you can measure the value of a project by the impact it will have on culture and other values, as well as on the economic and social well-being of a people or a nation. In this way, your work is placed in the broad and stimulating context of the present and future good of the world. You are useful to all the nations of this earth. Promoting the common good in your activities requires respect for the diverse cultures of nations and peoples, together with the sense of solidarity of peoples and nations under the guidance of the common Father. The progress of a nation can never be achieved at the expense of another nation. Everyone's program, with a fair use of your capacity, is the best guarantee that the common good guarantees to each people what they need and have the right to.
5. These few words of mine are presented to you today as encouragement. As Head of the Catholic Church, whose members are spread throughout the world, I wish to urge all of you to be servants of that world which needs to be increasingly united through the efforts that each of you is called to make in your sphere of activity. As servants of the truth of your disciplines, servants of the common good of all nations and all peoples, I hope that you will be increasingly closely united in tasks that will take advantage of your abilities and knowledge to advance well-being, harmony and the peace of all peoples for the benefit of future generations.
6. Allow me to evoke an extraordinary figure from another generation — a man known and admired as an apostle of peace, a man whose image so often represented in art is familiar to so many of you, and whose ideas are crystallized in expressions that in fact, they manifest their spirit to the modern world. Yes, the ideals of Saint Francis of Assisi are a ring of connection for all generations, for they unite men and women of good will from all centuries in search of peace, whose spiritual goals are encouraged by honest commitment and coordinated hard work. every day by experts from so many sectors and disciplines. It is in his spirit that I allow myself to speak of your contributions to the world, of what you are capable of doing for humanity, working together as brothers and sisters, under the common fatherhood of God: Lord, make us instruments of your peace! Where there is hatred, make us sow love! Where there is injury — forgiveness! Where there is doubt — faith! Where there is despair — hope! Where there is darkness — the light! Where there is sadness — joy! And where there is death, make us sow life! Where there is war, make us bring peace! Lord, make us effective servers of humanity, servers of life, servers of peace!
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