Human Rights Work Must be based on Universal Principles

Messages from the Holy Father are featured on a regular basis. These words of wisdom will include quotes from addresses by the Holy Father along with a link to learn more about the full text and context of the address.

This installment is from the Holy Father's September 8, 2010 address to members of the Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. During the address, the Holy Father exhorted his listeners to base their human rights work on universal principles which are based on the natural dignity of every human being.

"On different occasions I have pointed out the risks associated with relativism in the area of values, rights and duties. If these were to lack an objective rational foundation, common to all peoples, and were based exclusively on particular cultures, legislative decisions or court judgments, how could they offer a solid and long-lasting ground for supranational institutions such as the Council of Europe, and for your own task within that prestigious institution? How could a fruitful dialogue among cultures take place without common values, rights and stable, universal principles understood in the same way by all Members States of the Council of Europe? These values, rights and duties are rooted in the natural dignity of each person, something which is accessible to human reasoning. The Christian faith does not impede, but favors this search, and is an invitation to seek a supernatural basis for this dignity.

I am convinced that these principles, faithfully maintained, above all when dealing with human life, from conception to natural death, with marriage -- rooted in the exclusive and indissoluble gift of self between one man and one woman -- and freedom of religion and education, are necessary conditions if we are to respond adequately to the decisive and urgent challenges that history presents to each one of you."

-- September 8, 2010 address to members of the Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

From Zenit.