Lost in the coverage of the Pope's visit was one moving moment. Pope Benedict touched and blessed the flag that was recovered from the wreckage of the U.N. facility in Baghdad that was bombed by terrorists in August, 2003.
The flag had been placed there at memorial service a month after the bombing. Said the U.N. press office at the time:
"With flowers and tears, solemn words and lighted candles, the United Nations family gathered in the great hall of the General Assembly today, exactly one month after a terrorist's bomb destroyed UN headquarters in Baghdad, to pay tribute to its fallen and renew allegiance to the principles of altruism guiding the world body. 'They form a roll call of heroes that would be the envy of any nation,' Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared, standing beneath the very flag - now damaged - that had flown above the UN compound in Iraq on 19 August when the massive blast killed 22 people, including Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello."
Just like Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center attacks, the flag is a reminder that the terrorists we face aren't a group of guerilla fighters in a righteous cause: They are mass murderers who don't trouble themselves to select victims according to any traditional military categories of neutral, allies or enemies, let alone combatants or non-combatants.
Americans have always had a certain suspicion of the United Nations. With good reason. It's right to fear for the loss of sovereignty and to be watchful that worldwide anti-life policies aren't foisted on whole nations. But as the Holy Father reminded the United Nations, the organization's original calling is very different:
"In the internal debates of the United Nations, increasing emphasis is being placed on the 'responsibility to protect.' Indeed this is coming to be recognized as the moral basis for a government's claim to authority. It is also a feature that naturally appertains to a family, in which stronger members take care of weaker ones. This Organization performs an important service, in the name of the international community, by monitoring the extent to which governments fulfill their responsibility to protect their citizens."
So, pray for the Holy Father's intentions regarding the United Nations. He is making a bold effort to return the organization to its roots. Pray he succeeds.
-- Tom Hoopes
