«Human rights are a meeting ground today between believers and nonbelievers,» the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Archbishop Renato Martino, said Thursday when presenting the work at the Luigi Sturzo Institute.
The archbishop said the texts collected by Giorgio Filibeck, an official of the pontifical council, «show the solicitude of the Church for human rights, not as fashion but as the direct consequence of its evangelizing mission in the world.»
The book, published in Italian but soon to appear in other languages, runs almost 1,000 pages.
The appendix includes a subject guide covering concepts such as the death penalty, forgiveness, globalization, war, peace, Muslims, imperialism, poverty, nationalism and Nazism.
In the prologue, the late Cardinal François Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân and past president of Justice and Peace wrote: «The volume is a useful source of consultation for any one who wishes to know better the position of the Church in the vast area of human rights.»
