Ex-U.N. official says political leaders must use power to serve

Published: 2005-03-18

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Political leaders must use their power to serve others and promote the common good, not to subordinate or dominate others, said the former head of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development. Speaking at a Vatican conference marking the 40th anniversary of the pastoral constitution "Gaudium et Spes," former U.N. official Rubens Ricupero quoted from the Second Vatican Council document in outlining the moral limits of political power. "The exercise of political authority 'has always to be conducted within the limits of moral order and to promote the common good,'" he said. When "'rulers of nations' seek power as a means to control, to oppress, to dominate," those rulers "see power as an extension of their control over their own households, where people become objects of their personal ownership," he said in his March 17 address.

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