FAREWELL CEREMONY
ADDRESS OF
HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
John Fitzgerald Kennedy International
Airport, New York
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Mr.
Vice-President,
Distinguished Civil Authorities,
My Brother Bishops,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The time has come for me to
bid farewell to your country. These days that I have spent in the United States
have been blessed with many memorable experiences of American hospitality, and
I wish to express my deep appreciation to all of you for your kind welcome. It
has been a joy for me to witness the faith and devotion of the Catholic
community here. It was heart-warming to spend time with leaders and
representatives of other Christian communities and other religions, and I renew
my assurances of respect and esteem to all of you. I am grateful to President
Bush for kindly coming to greet me at the start of my visit, and I thank
Vice-President Cheney for his presence here as I depart. The civic authorities,
workers and volunteers in Washington and New York have given generously of
their time and resources in order to ensure the smooth progress of my visit at
every stage, and for this I express my profound thanks and appreciation to
Mayor Adrian Fenty of Washington and Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York.
Once again I offer prayerful
good wishes to the representatives of the see of Baltimore, the first
Archdiocese, and those of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Louisville, in
this jubilee year. May the Lord continue to bless you in the years ahead. To
all my Brother Bishops, to Bishop DiMarzio of this Diocese of Brooklyn, and to
the officers and staff of the Episcopal Conference who have contributed in so
many ways to the preparation of this visit, I extend my renewed gratitude for
their hard work and dedication. With great affection I greet once more the
priests and religious, the deacons, the seminarians and young people, and all
the faithful in the United States, and I encourage you to continue bearing
joyful witness to Christ our Hope, our Risen Lord and Savior, who makes all
things new and gives us life in abundance.
One of the high-points of my
visit was the opportunity to address the General Assembly of the United
Nations, and I thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his kind invitation and
welcome. Looking back over the sixty years that have passed since the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, I give thanks for all that the Organization has
been able to achieve in defending and promoting the fundamental rights of every
man, woman and child throughout the world, and I encourage people of good will
everywhere to continue working tirelessly to promote justice and peaceful
co-existence between peoples and nations.
My visit this morning to
Ground Zero will remain firmly etched in my memory, as I continue to pray for
those who died and for all who suffer in consequence of the tragedy that
occurred there in 2001. For all the people of America, and indeed throughout
the world, I pray that the future will bring increased fraternity and
solidarity, a growth in mutual respect, and a renewed trust and confidence in
God, our heavenly Father.
With these words, I take my
leave, I ask you to remember me in your prayers, and I assure you of my
affection and friendship in the Lord. May
God bless America!
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