Church leaders welcome South Africa's U.N. Security Council seat

Published: 2006-10-25

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- South Africa's recent election for a temporary seat on the U.N. Security Council shows the world recognizes the country's role in the peace process, said an official with the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference. Father Peter-John Pearson, head of the bishops' parliamentary liaison office in Cape Town, said the election "is a challenge to us as a country to be bold and continue building our democratic culture." South Africa has taken a leading role in mediating African conflicts, he told Catholic News Service Oct. 23. Father Pearson said South Africa "is being acknowledged as an interlocutor between the First and Third Worlds." The country "has experience of both worlds and therefore can speak for both," he said. South Africa was elected to a U.N. Security Council temporary seat Oct. 16 with the support of 186 of the United Nations' 192 members. It will begin its two-year term Jan. 1.

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