eloquent

Mijn geheime idool, Paus Benedictus XVI, sprak een tijdje terug de Algemene Vergadering van de Verenigde Naties toe (18 april 2008 om precies te zijn). Pas onlangs kwam ik tijdens een zwerftochtje op het interweb deze toespraak tegen. Ik bewonder hem vooral om zijn eloquente Duits, maar hij weet ook in het Engels zijn woordje te doen. Een uitsnede van zijn verhaal:

The life of the community, both domestically and internationally, clearly demonstrates that respect for rights, and the guarantees that follow from them, are measures of the common good that serve to evaluate the relationship between justice and injustice, development and poverty, security and conflict. The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and for increasing security. Indeed, the victims of hardship and despair, whose human dignity is violated with impunity, become easy prey to the call to violence, and they can then become violators of peace. [...] A vision of life firmly anchored in the religious dimension can help to achieve this, since recognition of the transcendent value of every man and woman favours conversion of heart, which then leads to a commitment to resist violence, terrorism and war, and to promote justice and peace. Indeed, questions of security, development goals, reduction of local and global inequalities, protection of the environment, of resources and of the climate, require all international leaders to act jointly and to show a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the law, and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the planet. I am thinking especially of those countries in Africa and other parts of the world which remain on the margins of authentic integral development, and are therefore at risk of experiencing only the negative effects of globalization. In the context of international relations, it is necessary to recognize the higher role played by rules and structures that are intrinsically ordered to promote the common good, and therefore to safeguard human freedom.

Je moet hem niet erbij horen, want dan klinkt hij als een figurant in ‘Allo, ‘Allo, maar zo op papier leest het heerlijk weg. Je vergeet dan bijna het gefrutsel met jongetjes door zijn personeel (waarvoor hij overigens zijn verontschuldigingen aanbood).