Paul KeenanSecretary General Ban Ki-moon leads delegation to Rome
Pope Francis has welcomed the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the Vatican
On May 9, Mr Ban led a delegation of leading UN members to the meeting at the Apostolic Palace. The delegation was present in Rome for the biannual strategic coordinating meeting of the UN’s System Chief Executives Board.
During the meeting, Pope Francis hailed UN efforts in meeting the Millennium Development Goals and urged the body to bow build on those efforts.
“An essential principle of management is the refusal to be satisfied with current results and to press forward, in the conviction that those gains are only consolidated by working to achieve even more,” the Pontiff said. “Much more needs to be achieved, since an important part of humanity does not share in the benefits of progress and is in fact relegated to the status of second-class citizens.
“I urge you to work together in promoting a true, worldwide ethical mobilisation which, beyond all differences of religious or political convictions, will spread and put into practice a shared ideal of fraternity and solidarity, especially with regard to the poorest and those most excluded.”