Because writing the innumerable addresses that the Pope has to give every week would not be humanly possible, of course he uses speechwriters. After all, he must sleep and eat sometimes. Depending on the audience, the task of initial drafting is assigned to the appropriate Curial office or dicastery. Being a responsible person, it's doubtful that Papa Ratzinger will read things that are given to him without reviewing them first and making appropriate editorial comments and changes. I believe I read somewhere that his assistants when he was a professor and his secretaries when he held Curial office had to wrest documents away from him because he'd keep trying to perfect the texts. Now, there's little doubt that Pope Benedict writes major speeches and homilies himself -- there's a certain approach and poetry to them that's unmistakeable. It's also quite likely that he drafts those in German (or Italian or Latin) first, although his French seems so fluent that he might be able to write easily in that language as well.

What's a bit odd about Joseph Ratzinger's command of English is that in the EWTN interview with Raymond Arroyo he seems to be well able to express himself in idiomatic English, although when it came to the question of clergy abuse he resorted to Italian. Perhaps the questions were submitted ahead of time and he could prepare and sort of memorize his reponses. Certainly, his off-the-cuff reply to the overwhelming cheers from those present at St. Patrick's Cathedral suggest that under pressure he may lose some of this facility (it was quite endearingly clumsy). As for becoming more understandable as the days passed, it might be a two-way street: he became less nervous and slowed down; we became more attuned to his accent.

And now, a submission by the forum's very own speechwriter, Unicorn, to the Vatican Radio (German section) speech writing competition. The assignment: write a United Nations address for the Pope, touching on the themes of human rights and the dialogue of cultures, but also peace, environmentalism and AIDS.. The prize: the Pope will read the best contributions and the winner will get a trip to Rome with a visit to the General Audience.

I don't know if the winners have been selected, but judge for yourselves if this one isn't worthy of a prize. I think it is extremely well done. Bravo, Unicorn!

Mr. President, the distinguished representatives of the various member-states and observers of the United Nations, esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen; it is but fitting that I begin by expressing my profound gratitude for the opportunity to address this august assembly, which frequently witnesses the congregation of the world's great cultures, come together in an enduring quest for the advancement of human civilization.

The annals of history tell us that the United Nations was born when the world had just begun to emerge from the darkness of what many believed was an era when, as the British statesman Sir Edward Grey had lamented just over three decades earlier, the lamps seemed to have gone out for civilization as we knew it. Amid the profound scars of a world torn virtually asunder by the horrors of the greatest and most savage war in the history of mankind, by the atrocity of an ideology that knew no regard whatsoever for human life and dignity, and by the unspeakable tragedy of countless lives lost in the wake of an irrational yet inhumanly efficient system of murder, the United Nations was born out of the world's determination that such darkness would never again befall humankind, and that civilization would never again descend to the depths of a barbarity that was virtually impossible to comprehend in its ruthlessness and cruelty.

It cannot be denied that the Church has itself witnessed periods of tragedy and darkness in its own history, when the sons and daughters of the Church, acting under the influence of the imperfections of human nature, visited suffering and sorrow on their fellowmen in pursuit of evangelization, and thereby obscured the fundamental message of love, hope and compassion that is at the heart of the Gospel of Christ. Yet God, in His mercy and wisdom, has brought the Church to this time and place, when this fundamental message is honored anew in her advocacy of the dignity of the human person, and of every human being's right to live in peace and freedom. This advocacy has twice seen the Successor of Peter the Apostle address the General Assembly, to articulate the Church's call for peace in our time, and for every person's right to the benefits of religious freedom, social justice, scientific advancement, and economic development. In pondering my meeting with all of you, I cannot help but reflect on the many encounters Peter himself must have had with the peoples of Palestine, who themselves came from different tribes and cultures, and to whom he spoke of the Gospel of Christ.

Today, however, the events of recent years have given us cause to ask ourselves in what direction the unfolding of history, and indeed, the development of civilization, has taken us. Although man generally understands the concept of civilization as the entirety of human knowledge and culture that is personified in the most advanced society of a given age, the world of the 21^st Century has marked such progress in the diverse aspects of human life that no one culture can lay claim to being the representative of the most advanced civilization. The question must be asked, however: has civilization truly evolved to a degree where we can indeed call it a fully human civilization? And if a truly human civilization is indispensable to the preservation of peace across the world, then the question must be asked: to what, indeed, do we owe the development of civilization, so that such causes may be safeguarded and encouraged? Do we owe such development to the growth of man as a rational being, gifted with the capacity to grasp new ideas and seek new knowledge, and in which sense, the French philologist Emile Benveniste would be proven as correct in his view that civilization involves a "non-theological understanding of society's evolution"? And if, in the annals of history, there are periods of great turmoil engendered by men who attributed their actions to the so-called guidance of faith, can it be said that there is still a place for faith in the development of human civilization?

Perhaps we may begin by an examination of developments in the aforementioned elements of what we understand as a civilized society, and it may be fitting to address first the most basic element of all, that of economic growth. The six decades since the end of the Second World War have seen the dramatic expansion of a number of the world's foremost economies. Indeed, in a number of regions around the world, there is great wealth to be seen, and such wealth has enabled a number of states to vastly improve the quality of life of their citizens. Economic development is key to the eradication of illiteracy, the improvement of health care, the abolition of hunger, the elimination of violence. No one can deny a people their right to pursue economic growth; to do so would chain them forever to ignorance, disease and poverty, and deny them their proper place in a civilized world.

Together with economic development came advancements in education, communication, and science and technology. It would not be an understatement to say that for these three aspects of modern life, dramatic changes have been seen in the last century. Greater access to education has enabled more and more people to become literate, and indeed, educated. No longer are the cadences of poetry, the intricacies of philosophical thought, the imagery of prose, the crossroads of history, the sole purview of academics and the affluent; centers of learning continue to be established the world over, welcoming people from all walks of life into their lecture halls and libraries. It stands to reason, therefore, that a more educated people are certain to be more adept at communication, in all its forms. Thus it has come to pass that the world has discovered diverse avenues for social communication, such that man can be said to be in the midst of a great conversation with his fellowman, continually exploring new schools of thought, or finding hitherto unnoticed ideas and perspectives in classical theories and concepts, and aided in such a discussion by an ever-growing array of communications media.

It is therefore inevitable that economic advancements, greater access to education, and far-reaching avenues of communication, have come together to encourage extraordinary advancements in science and technology, advancements that would have been unheard-of a century ago. Indeed, the progress of science has become so astonishing that even as man peers out into the vastness of space, seeking to explain the mysteries of the cosmos, he is similarly capable of exploring the virtually fathomless frontiers of the inner universe that is the human body, and in so doing, endeavor to conquer illness and disease.

Any reflection of the development of civilization, however, cannot fail to consider that ability of a people to govern themselves, to establish and uphold institutions whereby a system of ethics can be advocated through laws and statutes that uphold human rights and human freedoms. In the past thirteen years since my esteemed predecessor, John Paul II, stood at this podium to address the General Assembly, the world witnessed the great journey of the former Yugoslav states toward democratic government, and the declaration of independence by the people of East Timor. There can be no doubt that the world has moved forward significantly along the path toward true political maturity.

These and many other accomplishments in the past 60 years, are indeed a testament to the depth and breadth of the human genius, and bear witness to what man, with his intellect, his gifts and his capabilities, can achieve. Who can dispute the progress that human civilization has indeed made over the past century, or even in the past six decades, and the impact of such progress on human life? Who can deny the great strides that mankind has taken, advancements in almost ever aspect of human life that were hardly imaginable a hundred years ago?

Given the magnitude of such progress, the world might be forgiven for thinking that there are ultimately no boundaries that human reason - and indeed, human abilities - cannot cross, that there are no limits to what human capabilities can eventually achieve, that civilization as we know it is truly a result of the creative forces of the human genius. Human reason and human intellect have brought man to this time and place, when a vast frontier of discovery awaits him. It would seem that Benveniste's view of civilization, as an understanding of social evolution that is independent of theological influence, is indeed how man should understand the unfolding of human society and culture. And because the annals of history, from the Middle Ages to these present times, chronicle stories of great tragedies committed in the name of religion, does faith indeed have a role to play in human evolution, or is it rather a hindrance to the unfolding of civilization?

There is no denying that crimes have been committed for the sake of religious beliefs. No one can forget, nor should anyone deny, the atrocities committed during the Crusades, the forcible conversion of the Jews during the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance, the Wars of the Reformation, and other tragic and terrible deeds committed in the name of the Christian faith. Such tragedies are an enduring and eloquent reminder to all Christians that there is no place for violence, intolerance, brutality and prejudice in the Truth of Christ, nor should there be in any religion.

And yet, the danger posed by a world wherein faith has no place in the evolution of the human condition remains one of the most pressing dilemmas of our time, a menace made all the more treacherous for its sophisticated brutality and its well-disguised capacity to create a corrupt and callous society. For it is when man no longer recognizes the role of faith in the human existence that he ceases to value his own humanity, much less human life itself. Bereft of a perspective that acknowledges limitations and boundaries, heedless of any true ethical standards and moral principles that are best comprehended in the context of faith, enamored with the heady realization of what the human mind and the human genius can achieve, man's progress may yet result in man's own destruction.

The unhappy evidence of this danger is seen in things both manifest and concealed; in the euphoria over the progress made by mankind in the past century, it is only too easy to forget that such great steps forward did not come without a price. It is a price that, as events continue to unfold, may well have been paid in the coin of the human spirit itself. And so while we have witnessed even in recent times the tragedy that is visited upon the world by the irrational exploitation of faith, so too have we beheld the excesses wrought when reason cuts itself off from faith, and sees no other interest greater than that of fulfilling that which it believes - within its own limits of understanding - to be the most important objectives of all.

Thus it is that while medical science has given us many a cure for the diseases that have haunted mankind, so also has it been exploited to chart pathways to bring about the reduction of human life to a commodity to be reproduced, manipulated and utilized at will, all in light of the claim that there must be no stone left unturned, no avenue left unexplored, no boundaries uncrossed, in the search for the knowledge to cure the great maladies of our time. Thus it is that while on the one hand, the natural environment is despoiled and debased to slake man's great thirst for the resources to fuel the engines of development, on the other hand man endeavors to protect the environment by placing restrictions on the right of the Lord's greatest creation to exist - man himself. Thus it is that while man speaks of peace and the right of all men to live in harmony, he seeks to uphold a mere semblance of peace that is nothing more than a tenuous impasse between military powers caught up in an ever accelerating race to acquire more and fearful armaments.

In either circumstance, whether it be in a milieu where faith remains bereft of the nuances of reason, or in a landscape where reason advances without the illumination of faith, man becomes a hostage to himself, and a captive to what may yet become an ultimately meaningless quest for a utopia characterized by a civilization that cannot be said to be truly human. Human life shall degenerate into a seemingly endless cycle of conflict, where man shall constantly be at war with himself, forever believing mankind to be well on the road towards a "civilized" existence, yet forever disillusioned by the disputes and conflicts that arise when the two aspects of his nature are taken to be independent from each other.

Of all creatures formed by the hand of God, man is the greatest. This is because of all living beings that exist in this world, man is the only creature endowed with the innate awareness of a being greater than himself, and out of that awareness, endeavors to seek ways to understand himself and the universe that surrounds him. From the moment that man began to develop the earliest vestiges of rational thought, he has sought the presence of the divine. Indeed, there can be no disputing the fact that man, the only living creature capable of intelligent thought, is also the only living thing that can hope to comprehend - to whatever degree possible - the nature and object of faith. It is one of the most tragic ironies of human history that at either end of the seeming divide between faith and reason, each is viewed as an anathema, as a hindrance to the growth of the other, and therefore, as an encumbrance to the development of the human being. And yet, to separate one from the other, or to envision a world where either one shall have no place, is to ultimately deny the very humanity of man, and to condemn him to a shadow world where he is either a victim of violence in the name of religion, or a sacrifice on the altar of expediency, pragmatism and materialism.

And so we return to our earlier questions: has mankind indeed attained a truly humane civilization, which is so vital to the attainment of peace? The answer lies in whether every nation and every people can truthfully declare that it respects the dignity of the human person as a being who is gifted with reason and is guided by faith, and as a creature who searches for the presence of the divine even as he also seeks to understand it. If mankind is to truly find peace, if civilization is to be authentically human, then man must first achieve peace within himself, and understand that faith and reason are but two sides of the single coin of the human spirit.

That this can be achieved is most assuredly within the realm not just of possibility, but of reality. Man is a creature of both heart and mind, of compassion and comprehension, of emotion and intellect - it is not impossible to believe that he is capable of both profound faith and powerful reason. The history of the world, marred though it is with the scars of tragedies wrought by religious bigotry and rational amorality, is also illuminated by the eloquent splendor of the great works of art, by the undaunted courage of the voices that speak out aga