LA IGLESIA Y LOS DERECHOS HUMANOS

Abstract

The Catholic Church, which had previously shown a strong opposition to the rights of man and of the citizen put forward by the Enlightenment, defends and preaches in its teachings, since the pontificate of John XXIII, the contents of the Universal Statement of the Human Rights. However, this same Church does not put in practice such rights. Neither is the State of the Vatican City a democracy, nor has it, as an associated state to the United Nations Organization, subscribed to the pacts on human rights approved by the UN in December of 1966, or to the great majority of the covenants, conventions and protocols that United Nations has proposed for the application of the human rights to situations as serious as crimes against humanity, torture, the crimes of genocide or the many discriminations that make the equality of the rights of all human beings impossible. This contradictory behaviour of the Catholic Church turns out to be understandable as the Roman Pontiff is not only a religious leader, but likewise a head of state. The moral doctrine of the Church and the political interests of the Vatican State are the major obstacles to the behaviour of the Church being coherent insofar as it refers to the acceptance of and putting human rights into practice.