Pope: My fears over domination by few

World efforts to solve urgent problems are “in crisis” because decisions rest in the hands of just a few powerful nations, Pope Benedict XVI warned the United Nations.

The UN speech in New York highlighted another active day on Benedict’s first papal trip to the US, one that also included the first visit by the leader of the Roman Catholic Church to an American synagogue.

In his UN address, Benedict said that respect for human rights, not violence, was the key to solving many of the world’s problems.

While he did not identify the countries that had a stranglehold on global power, the German pope – just the third pontiff to address the UN General Assembly – addressed long-standing Vatican concerns about the struggle to achieve world peace and the development of the poorest regions.

On the one hand, he said, collective action by the international community was needed to solve the planet’s greatest challenges.

On the other, “we experience the obvious paradox of a multilateral consensus that continues to be in crisis because it is still subordinated to the decisions of a few”.

The Pope made no mention of the US in his speech, though the Vatican did not support the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which occurred despite the Bush administration’s failure to gain UN Security Council approval. At other moments on his trip, Benedict has been overtly critical of the US, noting how opportunity and hope have not always been available to minorities.

The Pope said questions of security, development and protection of the environment required international leaders to work together in good faith, particularly when dealing with Africa and other underdeveloped areas vulnerable to “the negative effects of globalisation”.

Benedict also insisted that the way to peace was by insuring respect for the dignity of human beings.

“The promotion of human rights remains the most effective strategy for eliminating inequalities between countries and social groups, and increasing security,” the Pope said.

Those whose rights are trampled “become easy prey to the call to violence and they then become violators of peace”.

By contrast, the Pope said, recognition of human rights favoured “conversion of heart, which then leads to a commitment to resist violence, terrorism and war”.

While Benedict, a former university professor and theologian, has spoken out less on global conflicts than his predecessor, John Paul II, he too lived through the Second World War. He was drafted into the German army at the end of the war and later deserted.

After three days in Washington, the Pope took an early morning flight from the nation’s capital to New York City.

His late-afternoon stop at Park East Synagogue, a modern Orthodox congregation, was mostly symbolic – a quick visit to offer greetings as Passover approached, exchange gifts and signal the increasingly warm relations between Catholicism and Judaism.

“May God spread his canopy of peace over all of us,” Rabbi Arthur Schneier told the Pope in his welcoming remarks.

“I assure you ... of my closeness at this time, as you prepare to celebrate the great deeds of the Almighty,” Benedict said.