VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The international community needs farsighted individuals and institutions capable of promoting values that will increase dialogue, justice and peace, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said recently.
The almost 84-year-old professor said he agreed to come to the Vatican and address the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences because he was interested in a philosophical discussion of the nature of international relations.
However, meeting reporters April 28 in the Vatican Gardens, Kissinger also spoke about the importance of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the importance of dialogue for peace in the Middle East, the complexity of the situation in Iraq and the need for a bipartisan U.S. foreign policy.
Today politicians in every country are under pressure to deal with immediate problems, “but the way you make history is to set your sights higher and look more into the distant future,” he told reporters.
Kissinger, who had a private meeting with Pope Benedict in September, said, “As a student of philosophy and of history, I have been very interested in the contribution to the continuity of our values by the Catholic Church,” especially in a way that “emphasizes reason and dialogue and community.”
Although he is not a Catholic, he said he shared the Vatican’s conviction that in international relations “contributions can be made by values to the continuity and survival of our civilization.”
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