UN General Assembly
2009

It is in that context of truth and sincerity that the recent appeal of Pope Benedict XVI can be seen in perspective. As he notes in his encyclical “Charity in Truth”, in the face of the unrelenting growth of global interdependence there is a strongly felt need, even in the midst of a global recession, for an urgent reform of the United Nations, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth. Such reform is urgent in order to find innovative ways of implementing the principles of the responsibility to protect and of giving poorer nations an effective voice in shared decision-making. Admittedly, building the United Nations as a true centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of those common ends is an extremely difficult task. The more the interdependence of peoples increases, the more the necessity of the United Nations becomes evident. The need to have an organization capable of responding to the obstacles and increasing complexity of the relations between peoples and