Small Minority Distorting Human Rights, Says Pope

Pope Benedict XVI made an impassioned plea yesterday for greater international cooperation on human rights, warning that the global consensus was being subordinated to the will of a small minority.

In the keynote speech of his six-day trip to America, delivered at the UN in New York, the Pope cautioned that the will of the wider international community was being dominated by that of a few powers. Though he mentioned no countries by name, he said: "We are witnessing the clear paradox of the multilateral consensus which continues to be in crisis because it is still subordinated to the decisions of a small number."

He used the 60th anniversary of the UN's universal declaration of human rights to argue that the UN should occupy the "moral center" of world affairs. Here, he said, all nations of the world should "feel themselves at home and feel a family of nations".

He put emphasis on the need to find consensus over a list of global problems: security, development goals, education, inequality locally and globally, and protection of the environment, natural resources and climate.

His speech avoided reference to specific conflicts, and was general enough to be open to a variety of interpretations. But it left no doubts about the value he placed on human rights and the standing of the UN. He finished his address by reciting the phrase "Peace and prosperity with God's help" in six of the 10 languages he speaks - English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian.

The UN speech follows a private meeting on Thursday in which he prayed with victims of childhood sexual abuse by US priests. Reports suggested that the pontiff spent about 25 minutes with a group of five or six abuse victims. One of those, Bernie McDaid, described to Associated Press how he told the Pope about abuse he suffered as an altar boy, which he said had been both sexual and spiritual.

"I said: 'Holy Father, you need to know you have a cancer in your flock and I hope you will do something for this problem. You have to fix this.' " McDaid said the Pope looked down at the floor and then back at him, "as if to say 'I know what you mean.' He took it in emotionally. We looked eye to eye."

Later the Pope was due to lead prayers at the site where the World Trade Centre once stood in New York, where he was expected, controversially, to pray for redemption for "hate-filled" terrorists.