Safeguard the 'spirit of Helsinki,' Pontiff urges (@Pontifex)

Pope Leo XIV recalled the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Accords, in which the Soviet Union and its allies pledged to respect human rights, including religious freedom, and the United States and its allies pledged to respect the post-World War II order in Eastern Europe.

“Today, fifty years from the signing of the Helsinki Final Act, it is essential, more than ever, to safeguard ‘the spirit of Helsinki’, to persevere in dialogue, strengthen cooperation, and make diplomacy the preferred path to prevent and resolve conflicts,” Pope Leo tweeted on August 1.

Archbishop (later Cardinal) Agostino Casaroli, then an official of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and later St. John Paul II’s Secretary of State (1979-1990), was active in the negotiation of the accords.