Italian cardinal advocates
planetary government
By NCR STAFF
Italian Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a progressive frequently
mentioned as a candidate to be the next pope, has advocated the creation of a
democratic and planetary system of government that would transcend
the powers of presently existing nation-states.
Martinis proposal came in a July issue of the Roman daily
newspaper La Repubblica. In an essay on human rights, Martini wrote that
nations have the right to manage their own affairs, but in view of the
universal nature of human rights, an absolute notion of sovereignty that
prevents the international community from policing abuses is
anachronistic and unhistorical.
Martini, 73, is the archbishop of Milan.
The cardinal supported humanitarian intervention in
defense of suffering populations such as refugees, including the use of troops
when other means have failed. Though humanitarian intervention was
most recently invoked by NATO in defense of its bombing campaign against
Serbia, Martini did not expressly approve or condemn that action.
Instead, quoting from Pope John Paul II, Martini said such
interventions must be precise in their objectives, must be authorized at a
supra-national level, and must never depend on the mere logic of
force.
Martini wrote that effective protection of human rights
obviously demands a true reconsideration of the present international
order. In his most controversial statement, he said that international
tribunals of human rights should have enforcement powers within
nation-states.
Ultimately, Martini argued, it will be necessary to rethink the
concept of the nation to ensure a more just and true cohabitation
among peoples. This will mean, he said, distinguishing between a
state and a nation, so that national identity does not
necessarily rest upon the existence of a political entity.
Before national interests, there are individual persons with
their inalienable dignity, Martini wrote, and before the particular
interests of individual groups is the universal human community and its
obligation to work for justice, solidarity and peace.
To that end, Martini wrote, it will be necessary to build a
planetary system of government, for which the present European Union is one
possible model. Martini called transcending national sovereignty the
roadmap to a more just and stable order.
This order, Martini writes, must be based on an exchange of
gifts in which the well-being of all groups, especially the weak, is
protected.
For this it will be necessary to overcome not only waging
actual wars, but also cold wars, and not merely to ensure the equality of
rights of all people, but also their access to assets for the construction of a
better future, Martini wrote in the July 13 La Repubblica.
The concept of a planetary political order that would supercede
the power of nation-states is anathema to many U.S. political
conservatives.
There are people who genuinely believe that our interests
are best served if we become weaker and weaker, Republican Congressman
Roscoe Bartlett said in 1998, and the U.N. becomes stronger and stronger,
so they ultimately have a bigger army than we do so they can keep the world
peace. These people are called globalists, new-world-order,
one-world-government people.
National Catholic Reporter, August 11,
2000
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