Highlighting another pressing human need, John Paul II repeated the words of Pope Paul VI, delivered at the U.N. General Assembly 14 years ago: “No more war. War never again.”

Just a few days before the pope addressed the U.N., while on his visit to Ireland, he told Catholics: “On my knees I beg you to turn away from the paths of violence and to return to the ways of peace. . . . Further violence in Ireland will only drag down to ruin the land you claim to love and the values you claim to cherish.”

In his speech before the United Nations, Pope John Paul II claimed: “The Catholic Church in every place on earth proclaims a message of peace, prays for peace, educates for peace.”