Vatican secretary of state says world’s fragmentation starts with forgetting what a human person is
NEW YORK — The root of today’s fragmented world is not technology, excess freedom, or diversity but the loss of a common understanding of who the human person is, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said at a New York dinner that took place during the United Nations General Assembly’s High-level Week.
Parolin spoke Sept. 25 as an honoree of CAPP-USA , the U.S. arm of the Fondazione Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice , a Vatican foundation that promotes Catholic social teaching and was established by St. John Paul II in 1993.
Among those present at the event were the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.) Mike Waltz, Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly, and the Holy See’s permanent observer to the U.N., Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia El-Kassis, who delivered the evening’s benediction.
Parolin said: “In the light of the Gospel, each generation must read the signs of its own times.”
Citing Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas , Parolin said modern technology is not humanity’s enemy but that dignity belongs to people, not systems or algorithms. He also recalled Rerum Novarum , the encyclical Pope Leo XIII penned in 1891 as the Church’s…
