Holy See now a participant in the World Health Organization

Meanwhile, as the release of Book VI dominates churchy news, this item is also in the Bolletino:

On Monday, 31 May 2021, the World Health Assembly adopted, by consensus, Resolution Participation of the Holy See in the World Health Organization presented by Italy, which formalizes the participation of the Holy See in the work of the World Health Organization as a non-Member State Observer. This decision reflects the relationship that the Holy See has continuously maintained with this Organization since 1953 and it bears witness to the commitment of the family of nations in addressing, through dialogue and international solidarity, the global health challenges that afflict humanity.

What could possible go wrong with that?

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9 Comments

  1. teomatteo says:

    ” the global health challenges that afflict humanity.”
    Expect a vigorous and unceasing opposition to “The Pill” and abortion and sexual mutilation procedures. ( “Do you feel better about yourself for putting it that way?” “Well, yes, I do”)

  2. JustaSinner says:

    The WHO that pushes Covid-1984? The same organization that supports abortion as birth control? Forced sterilization?

  3. Ipsitilla says:

    While I’m not unaware of the arguments in favor of cynicism, I’m inclined to see this as a good thing, as someone who works closely on these issues. The Holy See has played an invaluable role in helping block an international human right to abortion and support a traditional understanding of the family in negotiations at the UN General Assembly. The international abortion lobby (including “c”atholics for Choice) has called for their status as a UN observer state to be revoked, and it’s hard to come up with a better argument in favor of the Holy See having a permanent place at the WHA than this collection of complaints from abortion groups.

  4. iamlucky13 says:

    This should be an opportunity for the Holy See to provide input from the Catholic perspective on matters under discussion by the WHO, although without voting rights.

    For example, the ethical development of vaccines is a topic the Vatican has recently released some public commentary on, which it would be timely to bring up with the WHO as they continue to work on widespread distribution of multiple COVID-19 vaccines globally, some of which have more or less remote cooperation with abortions than others.

    How effectively that observer status ends up being used remains to be seen.

  5. Semper Gumby says:

    “…addressing, through dialogue and international solidarity, the global health challenges that afflict humanity.”

    Ah, “global health challenges.” WHO and the ChiComs are roughly analogous to the Third Reich and the Ahnenerbe’s medical experiments- which included an experimental typhus vaccine.

    Meanwhile, the Trump administration was accurate about the Wuhan Lab, HCQ and even sunlight. In May 2020 Pres. Trump sent a detailed letter to WHO Chief Dr. Tedros detailing WHO’s many errors and misdeeds. And, finally, Dr. Fauci is now a publicly documented jack*ss.

    WHO is the medical paramilitary of the UN. Here is something else the UN has been up to lately, from C-Fam last month:

    “UNICEF says any efforts to block children from accessing pornography online might infringe on their human rights.

    “UNICEF also claims that asking for age-verification to access pornography online may deny children access to what it calls “vital sexuality education.””

    “Solidarity” and “global health challenges,” but Orange Man Bad.

  6. ChesterFrank says:

    Was the Holy See a participant in the World Health Organization during the Trump administration, or is this just to “have lunch” with C’atholic Joe Biden (and Kerry and Pelosi and Cuomo? Politics is the balancing of public statements with “closed door deals. “

  7. Ipsitilla says:

    The World Health Assembly is the body that determines the policies of the World Health Organization. Having the Holy See involved in its deliberations, even as an observer, is likely to be a good thing, especially as there are early movements toward drafting a multilateral treaty on pandemic preparedness, and there will inevitably be attempts to co-opt such a treaty to include so-called “reproductive health” as essential in times of pandemic.

    As one European abortion advocate said in the article I linked above, “Pope Francis gives the Vatican a softer image, but its international diplomacy and the content behind it hasn’t changed.” There’s a reason the abortion lobby thinks this is bad news. From what I’ve seen (as someone affiliated with C-Fam), the Holy See’s diplomats taking part in international negotiations behind the scenes are a lot more solid, at least on life issues, than the press release in the Bolletino might have you think. They may not be able to stop the WHO and other UN agencies from issuing a lot of bad documents, but to the extent that anything is being negotiated by actual governments (especially binding treaties), having the Holy See in the room is a net positive.

  8. ChesterFrank says:

    Conservative Catholics complained about vaccines being developed using fetal tissue from abortion. I wonder what the comments would (will) be if that same tissue was used in the production of the virus itself, and that the leader of the Holy Catholic Church is a member of the organization that funded the entire catastrophe.

  9. Semper Gumby says:

    – WHO Director Dr. Tedros was a member of the ethnic Tigray People’s Liberation Front (Ethiopia) whose appointment as WHO Director was supported by the ChiComs. A genocide complaint against Dr. Tedros was filed in The Hague last December.

    – WHO rejected Taiwan’s participation at last year’s WHO meeting and refused to recognize scientific data from Taiwan.

    – Pres. Trump withdrew the U.S. from WHO and ended U.S. funding.

    – The Vatican last month used the pro-abortion term “pro-choice” in a letter last month.

    – The Vatican last month hosted a conference “Exploring the Mind, Body and Soul” which included speakers such as Dr. Fauci, Chelsea Clinton, Marc Benioff, Francis Collins and Jane Goodall (“If there were just a few of us, then the nasty things we do wouldn’t really matter and Mother Nature would take care of it – but there are so many of us.”).

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