UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday hailed Pope Francis as “a spiritual leader of the world” and emphasized goals of social justice shared between the Vatican and the United Nations.
“It is very important to meet a spiritual leader of the world,” Ban said at the start of his meeting with the Argentine pope, who last month became the first non-European leader of the world’s Catholics in nearly 1,300 years.
“The Holy See and the UN share common goals and ideas,” said Ban—one of the first world leaders to be received at an audience by the new pontiff.
Francis has called for the Roman Catholic Church to be closer to ordinary people and help the needy, as well as to reach out to people of different religions and non-believers.
“We discussed the need to advance social justice and accelerate work to meet the Millenium Development Goals,” Ban said after the meeting.
