Pope turns to world issues in United Nations speech

Pope Benedict turns to world issues on Friday when he addresses the United Nations in New York after three days in Washington overshadowed by the scandal of sexual abuse of minors by U.S. Catholic priests.

Now on a six-day U.S. visit, the German-born pontiff is expected to assail the notion that "might makes right" and focus mostly on general issues of peace and human rights.

Later, he will attend an ecumenical prayer service with 250 Protestant and Orthodox Christians at a church on Manhattan's Upper East Side originally founded by German immigrants.

Benedict capped three days of meetings and speeches in Washington with a surprise meeting on Thursday with several victims of clerical sexual abuse. Three of them later praised him for receiving them and speaking frankly about the scandal.

The Vatican's permanent observer at the U.N., Archbishop Celestino Migliore, said the pope would not have time to discuss crises around the world in detail.

"But surely, coming to the U.N. as a pilgrim of peace, he will say that we cannot base our relations on the false notion that might makes right, that we cannot build our future on a simple balance of power," he told journalists last week.

"No, our future must be based on respect for universal truths and our common humanity."

FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

Benedict's U.N. visit will be the fourth by a pontiff. Pope Paul VI came in 1965 for the world body's 20th anniversary and Pope John Paul II in 1979 and 1995 for the 50th anniversary.

"It's quite normal to expect that, in the wake of his predecessors, Pope Benedict will speak of peace," Migliore said.

The Vatican has observer status at the United Nations. Migliore told questioners it preferred that to full membership because it enabled the Holy See to stay out of direct involvement in political, economic and military issues.

The archbishop noted that this year marked the 60th anniversary of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Benedict has often spoken of the need for respect for rights, including religious freedom.

"The papacy works at the U.N. above all by highlighting and insisting on essential values and fundamental rights," Migliore said.

In a statement issued after their meeting on Wednesday, Benedict and President George W. Bush said they discussed "human rights and religious freedom, sustainable development and the struggle against poverty and pandemics, especially in Africa."

They also discussed the Middle East, especially Lebanon, and the need for a coordinated policy to develop Latin America so that many people would not have to emigrate from there.