UN Secretary-General Meets Pope Leo XIV
Image retrieved from X, @atonioguterres
Pope Leo XIV receives UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the Vatican “Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday received U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in an audience held in the study of the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. Guterres subsequently met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state of the Holy See, and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for relations with states and international organizations.” [READ]
Soon after their meeting, the Secretary-General posted on X that the Pope is “a messenger of hope and dignity that our world needs more than ever.”
Guterres calling the Pope “a messenger of hope and dignity” is no minor compliment, especially in light of the stark clash between the Catholic Church’s teachings on life and gender, which the Pope upholds, and the UN’s ideological trajectory.
At the UN, the Secretary-General has not shied away from condemning pro-lifers, labeling them as anti-rights and “the pushback” on women’s rights.
The same goes for those who oppose gender ideology. Such hostile rhetoric reached its peak during the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March 2025, when panelists and even some parliamentarians referred to pro-lifers as their “personal enemies” whose values are, according to them, antithetical to any reasonable interpretation of human rights.
At their core, the abortion and gender ideology debates hinge on one’s understanding of human dignity. So then how is it that Antonio Guterres publicly praises the Pope as a messenger of dignity while at the same time vigorously denouncing the Church’s understanding of the term within the confines of the UN headquarters?
While the Christian faith holds that each human being, from conception until natural death, has immense value and dignity, the UN relies on a “progressive” interpretation of human rights, in tune with the latest trends and the loudest and most powerful advocacy groups and member states. If the Nordic and European countries believe killing the unborn is not a tragedy and has absolutely no moral implications, so must it be.
Perhaps more than anywhere, words matter at the UN. As the epicenter of diplomacy, the UN’s normative impact is substantial. Such inflammatory rhetoric, especially when disseminated and perpetuated by “authority figures” such as the UN chief, delegitimizes and sidelines socially conservative voices within the UN system, where their perspective is already misrepresented. It is no coincidence that the UN never platforms the socially conservative perspective at events and key commissions.
Going back to the X post, wouldn’t the Vatican be the nucleus of the anti-rights as understood by the Secretary-General? Did his discomfort with the pro-life stance suddenly vanish in the presence of the Pope? Why is it that he seems to “respect” the Roman Pontiff while consistently disrespecting the Catholic laymen advocating for their faith?
Sure, there is an expected diplomatic politeness accompanying such high-level meetings, but Guterres went much beyond that in his comment about the People as “messengers of dignity” that the world needs “more than ever before.”
Not too long ago, Catholics for Choice, a non-profit organization that positioned itself against the Catholic Church, spoke at a UN conference asking the UN to revoke the observer status of the Holy See. The UN bureaucracy did not offer any comments on such a hostile attack. Below is what they said:
“The UN should not be granting this high-level diplomatic status to a religious body that is interfering in the progress of already-established goals, and it certainly should not be granted solely to the Vatican.”
While the Secretary-General never called the Vatican by name, he used the same narrative against groups responsible for the “regression on progress on already established goals” to refer to those who challenge the inclusion abortion and gender ideology as rights, a longstanding position of the Holy See.
So, which one is it?
Resources & Reads
🗞 Canada’s ‘Father of Abortion’ Was a Holocaust Survivor. Did Trauma Make Him a Killer? “It has long haunted me how Henry Morgentaler, sometimes referred to as Canada’s “father of abortion,” survived Nazi concentration camps only to go on to perpetrate similar horrors against the smallest and most vulnerable members of the human family: preborn children.” (CLC)
