| Styles of Silvano Tomasi |
|
|---|---|
| Reference style | The Most Reverend |
| Spoken style | Your Excellency |
| Religious style | Archbishop |
| Posthumous style | none |
Silvano Maria Tomasi C.S. (12 October 1940 -) is a Catholic Archbishop and currently Permanent Observer of Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva.
He was born in Casoni di Mussolente, Italy. He was ordained on 31 May 1965 as priest of the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Charles. He earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Fordham University. He co-founded the Center for Migration Studies and even wrote a book on the historic legacy of New York's Italian parishes.
He was appointed as Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples on 27 June 1989 by Pope John Paul II. He was appointed as Titular Archbishop of Cercina on the same day in 1996 and appointed as Apostolic Nuncio to Eritrea and Ethiopia. He was ordained on 17 August 1996. He was transferred to the titular see of Acelum. He served as in Eritrea and Ethiopia until he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Djibouti on 23 December 2000 where he remained until he was appointed to his present post on 10 June 2003.
His brother Fr Lydio is pastor of Holy Rosary Church in Washington D.C..
He was widely criticised in September 2009 following a speech in which he sought to favourably compare the Church's record on child sex abuse with that of other organisations by arguing that ""Of all priests involved in the abuses, 80 to 90 percent belong to this sexual orientation minority which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys between the ages of 11 and 17" and "As the Catholic church has been busy cleaning its own house, it would be good if other institutions and authorities, where the major part of abuses are reported, could do the same and inform the media about it."[1][2]
Archbishop Tomasi "encouraged passage of an international protocol that would give children a direct line of communication to local and international authorities when they are victims of violence or their rights are violated....Tomasi...said the measure "will become a significant instrument of the human rights system." The document is in addition to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Archbishop Tomasi spoke of it Monday, June 6, 2011 in Geneva during a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council...." <<http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1102245.htm>>
Speaking on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at the U.N. International Labor Conference in Geneva, Archbishop Tomasi urged that all involved in "the burgeoning and mercurial economic system" work to foster fundamental principles that ensure respect for the common good and protection of the most vulnerable. <<http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1102337.htm>>
The following, taken from News.va (Vatican Information Service) and Vatican Radio on Wednesday, September 28, 2011, is the official text of Archbishop Tomasi's remarks (given Monday, September 27, 2011) to the World Intellectual Property Organization during the 49th Series of Meetings of the WIPO Assemblies:
"Mr. Chairman 1. Let me start by presenting you our congratulations for your election as the chair of the General Assembly and I extend them to your two vice chairs. My Delegation is confident that under your leadership we will be able to reach a positive outcome.2. Allow me also to express our support for the efforts of the Director General and his staff in encouraging innovation and creativity over the last year in all the regions of the world, while promoting a balanced and effective international intellectual property system. 3. In this and in other fora, the Holy See has argued that intellectual property deserves protection since it creates incentives for innovation. Such protection, however, must be tempered to allow the spreading of the benefits of innovation as widely as possible. The very creative and innovative impact that IP rights provide should aim primarily at serving the common good of the human community. Individual persons and associations are called to contribute to the cultural, economic, political and social life of the civil community to which they belong. Since all human beings should contribute to society, special attention is required to make possible also the participation of the most disadvantaged. For this reason the poor should be helped “to acquire expertise, to enter the circle of exchange, and to develop their skills in order to make the best use of their capacities and resources.” Education is the critical strategy to achieve this goal. In fact, it endows needy people with the basic knowledge which enables them to express their creativity and develop their talents. In this way they become active protagonists for their future and no longer merely passive elements in the social order where the human person “must be and must continue to be, its subject, its foundation and its end.”
4. Since the last Assemblies, meaningful and hopeful progress has taken place in various substantive sectors of the Organization, such as the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP), the Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC). The Strategic Realignment Program (SRP) has been refined and its progressive implementation shared through informative briefings offered by the Secretariat. 5. A major success of the Organization has occurred in the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR). After ten years of a stand-off, a positive and cooperative engagement by Delegations has led to the SCCR’s recommendation to resume the failed 2000 Diplomatic Conference on a treaty for the protection of audiovisual performances. My Delegation looks forward as well to reaching an agreement on the visually impaired and on people with print disabilities. This agreement will make a significant contribution in mitigating the difficulty faced by more than 284 million visually impaired people worldwide, about 90% of whom live in developing countries. These are people with limited access to education and culture, not because they lack thirst of knowledge or because they lack aspiration to play their part in the material and cultural welfare of the world community, but because of their disability.6. The rapid development of technology in the area of the media is surely one of the signs of advancement in today’s society; it is also a challenge for the Member States of this Organization that have to undertake a particular effort to face it. The Holy See, as a practical demonstration of its commitment and recognizing the lead role played by Copyright, has updated its legislation in this field by adopting a new law. Such a decision shows the significant role played by intellectual property in this State. 7. During the last biennium, the Intergovernmental Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) undertook a tremendous effort towards the development of an international protection instrument and during the last session it has elaborated a proposal for a renewal of its mandate. The Holy See remains engaged in this Committee and would like to underline a few elements:
intellectual manifestations of tradition or folklore deserve recognition first, because they constitute a means of constructing and projecting the identity of the members of the community concerned and, second, because they are a common asset of that same community, which has grown by small, anonymous contributions over many generations; many biological resources bearing great economic and social usefulness are located in territories inhabited since time immemorial by native communities within the jurisdiction of countries other than those where industrial development of genetic material takes place and patents are obtained. Those native communities already have some knowledge and make use of some of the biological properties protected by patents. Indigenous Communities' ancestral concern for the soil needs to be considered: it generates a right to its use and usufruct. This right extends also to the plants and animals of a territory.Consequently, the biological environment tends to be closely associated with the culture of local people, and constitutes an integral factor of their identity and social cohesion. Native populations' rights over the land and its fruits exist, and have to be protected, even where modern systems of property protection — both movable and immovable property such as intellectual property—do not foresee their recognition and protection to a sufficient extent.
Mr President, I would like to conclude by reaffirming the right to private property and in particular to intellectual property. This right is under a ‘social mortgage,’ for the satisfaction of essential human needs. It has an intrinsically social function, which is justified precisely by the principle of the universal destination of goods. The universal destination of goods represent the sum total of social conditions which allow social groups and their individual members to arrive at their own fulfilment. The common good, however, is realized if solidarity prevails. In our globalized world, an equitable relationship with others is a must since we are all really responsible for all.
Thank you"
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Diarmuid Martin |
Permanent Observer of Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva 10 June 2003 – present |
Succeeded by incumbent |