The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), which monitors U.N. affairs, has documented the involvement of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) in coercive birth control programs, including forced abortion, in China. The Vatican suspended its own financial support for another U.N. agency, the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), after accusing the agency of involvement in abortion activities. Benedict said nothing about these controversies, however.

“That is why the Church is happy to be associated with the activity of this distinguished Organization, charged with the responsibility of promoting peace and good will throughout the earth,”Benedict said. In fact, the U.N. has been dubbed “the House that Hiss built” because of the role that Soviet spy and State Department official Alger Hiss played in founding the organization.

In a major journalistic faux pas, Tracy Wilkinson and Maggie Farley of the Los Angeles Times tried to draw a contrast between the Pope and the “secular institution” at which he spoke. In fact, the U.N. includes a “Meditation Room” with strange lights and a large square block of stone where U.N. officials are alleged to come into contact with cosmic or spiritual forces. The “Environmental Sabbath” program, administered by the U.N. Environment Program, advised children to hold hands and meditate around a tree.