At UN, Holy See demands action to safeguard civilians in global conflicts

Archbishop Gabriele Caccia in an address on May 22, 2025, told the U.N. Security Council that civilians are not “expendable.” / Credit: Kevin Jones/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 27, 2025 / 13:29 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Gabriele Caccia addressed the United Nations Security Council last week, underscoring the Holy See’s concern for the rising number of civilians impacted by armed conflicts across the globe.

“It is fundamental that, even in the midst of conflict, the protection of the human person and its inherent God-given dignity remain at the center of all collective efforts, also in order to avoid the scourge of war,” said Caccia, who serves as permanent observer of the Holy See to the U.N., in his May 22 address.

“The human person must never be treated as expendable or reduced to mere collateral damage,” the Italian archbishop continued, citing the “deliberate targeting” of civilians and civilian structures as a matter of “great concern.”

“While these violations are an immense human tragedy, they also represent a grave affront to the foundations of international security,” Caccia emphasized in his statement.

The Holy See became a non-member-state permanent observer to the United Nations in 1964. Its mission there is key to the Holy See’s diplomatic work, communicating the Catholic Church’s centuries of experience to assist the U.N. in realizing peace, justice, human dignity, and humanitarian cooperation and assistance.

In his capacity as head of the mission, Caccia urged the U.N. Security Council to continue its work to “put an end to the use of indiscriminate weapons, landmines, and cluster munitions, and to stop the deployment of explosive weapons in populated areas.” 

He also highlighted the importance of ending mass arms production and stockpiling as a concrete step toward protecting civilian lives. 

Finally, Caccia warned the council against emerging military technologies such as lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) and encouraged a legally-binding proposal to prohibit them by 2026. 

“Ensuring that decisions over life and death remain under meaningful human control is not only a matter of legal accountability but also a moral responsibility,” Caccia said. 

Caccia has served as permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York since his appointment by Pope Francis in November 2019. Prior to this, Caccia spent nearly 30 years in the Vatican’s diplomatic service working in nunciatures in Tanzania, Lebanon, the Philippines, and the Vatican’s Secretariat of State in Rome.

He studied at the Vatican’s Diplomatic School, the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in Rome, where he earned a doctorate in sacred theology, and at the Pontifical Gregorian University for a licentiate in canon law. Prior to this, he served for three years as a parish priest in his home diocese, the Archdiocese of Milan.

Pope Benedict XVI ordained Caccia a bishop in 2009 and named him apostolic nuncio in Lebanon. His episcopal motto is “We have believed in the love God has for us” (1 Jn 4:16).