Speechs 2007
St Peter's Square
Saturday, 24 November 2007
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Welcome here in this Square! Thank you for your presence. We feared the rain, and this is why we were inside the Basilica. You have been courageously present here, you have prayed with us. I thank you for your prayerful presence, for your participation in this important step of the Catholic Church. The new Cardinals reflect the universality of the Church, her catholicity. The Church speaks all languages, embraces all peoples, all cultures. All together we form God's family. And as a family we are gathered here and praying that the Lord will bless these new Cardinals at the service of you all. And we pray that Our Lady will accompany us step by step.
I wish you all a good Sunday and a good return trip. Thank you for coming. Good-bye and have a good day!
Paul VI Audience Hall
Monday, 26 November 2007
Your Eminences,
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Presbyterate,
Dear Friends,
Our meeting today extends the atmosphere of prayer and communion we have lived in these days of festivity for the creation of 23 new Cardinals. The Consistory and yesterday's Eucharistic Celebration on the Solemnity of Christ the King have afforded us a special opportunity to experience the Church's catholicity, well represented by the variegated provenance of the members of the College of Cardinals gathered round the Successor of Peter in close communion. I am thus glad once again to address my cordial greeting to these new Cardinals and with them, I greet all of you, relatives and friends, who have come to gather round them at such an important moment in their lives.
I greet you first, dear Italian Cardinals. I greet you, Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, President of the Pontifical Commission and of the Governorate of Vatican City State; I greet you, Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Archpriest of the Vatican Basilica, my Vicar General for Vatican City State and President of the Fabric of St Peter; I greet you, Cardinal Raffaele Farina, Archivist and Librarian of Holy Roman Church; I greet you, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Metropolitan Archbishop of Genoa and President of the Italian Bishops' Conference; I greet you, Cardinal Giovanni Coppa, former Apostolic Nuncio in the Czech Republic; I greet you, Cardinal Umberto Betti, former Rector of the Pontifical Lateran University. Venerable and dear Brothers, so many persons and friends, bound to you in various ways, are beside you on this occasion, which is at the same time both solemn and intimate. I urge each one of them never to let you lack friendship, esteem and prayers, thereby helping you to continue to serve the Church faithfully, and in the various tasks and ministries that Providence entrusts to you, to bear an ever more generous witness of love for Christ.
I am pleased to greet the new members of the College of Cardinals. Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris; Cardinal Théodore-Adrien Sarr, Archbishop of Dakar, as well as their loved ones and members of their Dioceses who have wished to accompany them on this happy occasion. May the ceremonies we have been able to experience in the past two days strengthen your faith and your love of Christ and the Church. I also ask you to support your Pastors and accompany them with your prayers, so that they may always guide the people entrusted to them with care. Let us also not forget to ask Christ for young people to be willing to accept a commitment to the priesthood.
I extend a cordial greeting to the English-speaking Prelates whom I had the joy of raising to the dignity of Cardinal in last Saturday's Consistory. Cardinal John Patrick Foley, Grand Master of the Knights of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem; Cardinal Seán Baptist Brady, Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland; Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, India; Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston (U.S.A.); Cardinal John Njue, Archbishop of Nairobi (Kenya); Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, Patriarch of Babylon for Chaldeans. I am also pleased to have this opportunity to welcome their family members and friends, and all the faithful who have accompanied them to Rome. The College of Cardinals, whose origin is linked to the ancient clergy of the Roman Church, is charged with electing the Successor of Peter and advising him in matters of greater importance. Whether in the offices of the Roman Curia or in their ministry in the local Churches throughout the world, the Cardinals are called to share in a special way in the Pope's solicitude for the universal Church. The vivid colour of their robes has traditionally been seen as a sign of their commitment to defending Christ's flock even to the shedding of their blood. As the new Cardinals accept the burden of this office, I am confident that they will be supported by your constant prayers and your cooperation in their efforts to build up the Body of Christ in unity, holiness and peace.
I offer a warm welcome to Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, to his family, his friends and his guests who have come from Germany, as well as the faithful from his Archdiocese of Paderborn, of which he was also Bishop. Together with you, I thank our new Cardinal for the precious service to the Successor of Peter that he has carried out for many years as President of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum". Continue to accompany him with your prayers and support him in his important task of practical solicitude for the Pope's loving service to the poor and needy. May the Lord give his grace to you all!
I warmly greet the new Spanish-speaking Cardinals, accompanied by their relatives and numerous Bishops, priests, Religious and lay people from Argentina, Spain and Mexico. Argentina rejoices for Cardinal Leonardo Sandri who, after serving the Holy See as Substitute of the Secretariat of State, is now in charge of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, and also for Cardinal Estanislao Esteban Karlic, Archbishop emeritus of Paraná, who has served that Ecclesial Community for so many years with affection and self-denial. The Church in Spain rejoices for Cardinal Agustín García-Gasco Vicente, Archbishop of Valencia, a city I visited last year for the World Day of the Family; for Cardinal Lluís Martínez Sistach, Archbishop of Barcelona, who formerly carried out a fruitful ministry in Tortosa and Tarragona; and also for Cardinal Urbano Navarrete, former Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, who devoted his life to studying and teaching Canon Law. The pilgrim Church in Mexico congratulates Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega, Archbishop of Monterrey, whose constant pastoral dedication was also manifest in Toluca. Let us turn our minds to the Virgin Mary, to whom your peoples are so devoted, and ask her to intercede for these Cardinals with her divine Son in order to enrich their service to the Church with an abundance of fruit.
I greet Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer and the Bishops who have desired to accompany him together with his family, friends and guests. I find this a favourable opportunity to recall the days of my Pastoral Visit to São Paulo this year and to renew my gratitude for the welcome I received in his Archdiocese. I express the wish that his appointment as Cardinal may help deepen his love for the Church and strengthen the faith of his faithful in Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord!
I greet Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko and his guests. I thank him for all that he does for the participation of lay people in the life of the Church and I wish him abundant graces. I commend you all to the love of God and I cordially bless you.
Lastly, I renew my brotherly greeting to you, venerable and dear new Cardinals, and as I assure you of my prayers, I ask you to accompany me always with your appreciated human and pastoral experience. I set great store by your invaluable support to enable me to carry out as well as possible my ministry at the service of the entire People of God. I am in need of this support. And to you, dear brothers and sisters who gather round them with affection, once again, thank you for your participation in the various rites and moments of the Consistory. Continue to pray for them and also for me that the communion of the Pastors with the Pope may always be firm, so as to offer the whole world the witness of a Church faithful to Christ and ready to respond with prophetic courage to the spiritual expectations and needs of the people of our time. On your return to your various Dioceses, I ask you to convey to everyone my greeting and the assurance of my constant remembrance with the Lord. I invoke upon you, dear new Cardinals, and upon all of you who are present here, the protection of the Heavenly Mother of God and of the Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul. With these sentiments, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing to you all.
Clementine Hall
Saturday, 1st December 2007
Your Excellencies,
Representatives of the Holy See to International Organizations,
Dear Friends,
I am pleased to greet all of you who are assembled in Rome to reflect on the contribution which Catholic-inspired Non-governmental Organizations can offer, in close collaboration with the Holy See, to the solution of the many problems and challenges associated with the various activities of the United Nations and other international and regional organizations. To each of you I offer a cordial welcome. In a particular way I thank the Substitute of the Secretariat of State, who has graciously interpreted your common sentiments, while at the same time informing me of the goals of your Forum. I also greet the young representative of the Non-governmental Organizations present.
Taking part in this important meeting are representatives of groups long associated with the presence and activity of the Catholic laity at the international level, along with members of other, more recent groups which have come into being as part of the current process of global integration. Also present are groups mainly committed to advocacy, and others chiefly concerned with the concrete management of cooperative projects promoting development. Some of your organizations are recognized by the Church as public and private associations of the lay faithful, others share in the charism of certain institutes of consecrated life, while still others enjoy only civil recognition and include non-Catholics and non-Christians among their members. All of you, however, have in common a passion for promoting human dignity. This same passion has constantly inspired the activity of the Holy See in the international community. The real reason for the present meeting, then, is to express gratitude and appreciation for what you are doing in active collaboration with the papal representatives to international organizations. In addition, this meeting seeks to foster a spirit of cooperation among your organizations and consequently the effectiveness of your common activity on behalf of the integral good of the human person and of all humanity.
This unity of purpose can only be achieved through a variety of roles and activities. The multilateral diplomacy of the Holy See, for the most part, strives to reaffirm the great fundamental principles of international life, since the Church’s specific contribution consists in helping "to form consciences in political life and to stimulate greater insight into the authentic requirements of justice as well as greater readiness to act accordingly" (Deus Caritas Est 28). On the other hand, "the direct duty to work for a just ordering of society is proper to the lay faithful" – and in the context of international life this includes Christian diplomats and members of Non-governmental Organizations – who "are called to take part in public life in a personal capacity" and "to configure social life correctly, respecting its legitimate autonomy and cooperating with other citizens according to their respective competences and fulfilling their own responsibility" (ibid., 29).
International cooperation between governments, which was already emerging at the end of the nineteenth century and which grew steadily throughout the last century despite the tragic disruption of two world wars, has significantly contributed towards the creation of a more just international order. In this regard, we can look with satisfaction to achievements such as the universal recognition of the juridical and political primacy of human rights, the adoption of shared goals regarding the full enjoyment of economic and social rights by all the earth’s inhabitants, the efforts being made to develop a just global economy and, more recently, the protection of the environment and the promotion of intercultural dialogue.
At the same time, international discussions often seem marked by a relativistic logic which would consider as the sole guarantee of peaceful coexistence between peoples a refusal to admit the truth about man and his dignity, to say nothing of the possibility of an ethics based on recognition of the natural moral law. This has led, in effect, to the imposition of a notion of law and politics which ultimately makes consensus between states – a consensus conditioned at times by short-term interests or manipulated by ideological pressure – the only real basis of international norms. The bitter fruits of this relativistic logic are sadly evident: we think, for example, of the attempt to consider as human rights the consequences of certain self-centred lifestyles; a lack of concern for the economic and social needs of the poorer nations; contempt for humanitarian law, and a selective defence of human rights. It is my hope that your study and reflection during these days will result in more effective ways of making the Church’s social doctrine better known and accepted on the international level. I encourage you, then, to counter relativism creatively by presenting the great truths about man’s innate dignity and the rights which are derived from that dignity. This in turn will contribute to the forging of a more adequate response to the many issues being discussed today in the international forum. Above all, it will help to advance specific initiatives marked by a spirit of solidarity and freedom.
What is needed, in fact, is a spirit of solidarity conducive for promoting as a body those ethical principles which, by their very nature and their role as the basis of social life, remain non-negotiable. A spirit of solidarity imbued with a strong sense of fraternal love leads to a better appreciation of the initiatives of others and a deeper desire to cooperate with them. Thanks to this spirit, one will always, whenever it is useful or necessary, work in collaboration either with the various non-governmental organizations or the representatives of the Holy See, with due respect for their differences of nature, institutional ends and methods of operation. On the other hand, an authentic spirit of freedom, lived in solidarity, will help the initiative of the members of non-governmental organization to create a broad gamut of new approaches and solutions with regard to those temporal affairs which God has left to the free and responsible judgement of every individual. When experienced in solidarity, legitimate pluralism and diversity will lead not to division and competition, but to ever greater effectiveness. The activities of your organizations will bear genuine fruit provided they remain faithful to the Church’s magisterium, anchored in communion with her pastors and above all with the successor of Peter, and meet in a spirit of prudent openness the challenges of the present moment.
Dear friends, I thank you once again for your presence today and for your dedicated efforts to advance the cause of justice and peace within the human family. Assuring you of a special remembrance in my prayers, I invoke upon you, and the organizations you represent, the maternal protection of Mary, Queen of the World. To you, your families and your associates, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing.
Monday, 3 December 2007
Dear Brother Bishops,
“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1Jn 4,16). With fraternal greetings I welcome you, the Bishops of Korea and the Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, and I thank the Most Reverend John Chang Yik, President of the Episcopal Conference, for the kind sentiments expressed on your behalf. I warmly reciprocate them and assure you, and those entrusted to your pastoral care, of my prayers and solicitude. As servants of the Gospel, you have come to see Peter (cf. Gal Ga 1,18) and to strengthen the bonds of collegiality which express the Church’s unity in diversity and safeguard the tradition handed down by the Apostles (cf. Pastores Gregis, 57).
The Church in your countries has made remarkable progress since the arrival of missionaries in the region over four hundred years ago, and their return to Mongolia just fifteen years ago. This growth is due in no small part to the outstanding witness of the Korean Martyrs and others throughout Asia who remained steadfastly faithful to Christ and his Church. The endurance of their testimony speaks eloquently of the fundamental concept of communio that unifies and vivifies ecclesial life in all its dimensions.
The Evangelist John’s numerous exhortations to abide in the love and truth of Christ evoke the image of a sure and safe dwelling place. God first loves us and we, drawn towards his gift of living water, “constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God” (Deus Caritas Est 7). Yet Saint John also had to urge his communities to remain in that love, for already some had been enticed by the distractions which lead to interior weakness and eventual detachment from the communio of believers.
This admonition to remain in Christ’s love also has a particular significance for you today. Your reports attest to the lure of materialism and the negative effects of a secularist mentality. When men and women are drawn away from the Lord’s dwelling place they inevitably wander in a wilderness of individual isolation and social fragmentation, for “it is only in the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear” (Gaudium et Spes GS 22).
Dear Brothers, from this perspective it is evident that to be effective shepherds of hope you must strive to ensure that the bond of communion which unites Christ to all the baptized is safeguarded and experienced as the heart of the mystery of the Church (cf. Ecclesia in Asia, 24). With their eyes fixed on the Lord, the faithful must echo anew the Martyrs’ cry of faith: “we know and believe the love God has for us” (1Jn 4,16). Such faith is sustained and nurtured by an ongoing encounter with Jesus Christ who comes to men and women through the Church: the sign and sacrament of communion with God and of unity among all people (cf. Lumen Gentium LG 1). The gateway to this mystery of communion with God is of course Baptism. This sacrament of initiation, far more than a social ritual or welcome into a particular community, is the initiative of God (cf. Rite of Baptism, 98). Those reborn through the waters of new life enter the door of the universal Church and are drawn into the dynamism of the life of faith. Indeed, the profound importance of this sacrament underscores your growing concern that not a few of the numerous adults received into the Church in your region every year fail to maintain a commitment to “the full participation in liturgical celebrations which is … a right and obligation by reason of … Baptism” (Sacrosanctum Concilium SC 14). I encourage you to ensure, especially through a joyous mystagogia, that the “flame of faith” is kept “alive in the hearts” (Rite of Baptism, 100) of the newly baptized.
The word communio also refers of course to the Eucharistic centre of the Church as Saint Paul eloquently teaches (cf. 1Co 10,16-17). The Eucharist roots our understanding of the Church in the intimate encounter between Jesus and humanity and reveals the source of ecclesial unity: Christ’s act of giving himself to us makes us his body. The commemoration of Christ’s death and resurrection in the Eucharist is the “supreme sacramental manifestation of communio in the Church” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 38) whereby local Churches allow themselves to be drawn into the open arms of the Lord and strengthened in unity within the one Body (cf. Sacramentum Caritatis, 15).
Your programmes designed to highlight the importance of Sunday Mass should be infused with a sound and stimulating catechesis on the Eucharist. This will foster a renewed understanding of the authentic dynamism of Christian life among your faithful. I join you in urging the laity – and in a special way the young people in your region – to explore the depth and breadth of our Eucharistic communion. Gathered every Sunday in the Lord’s House, we are consumed by Christ’s love and truth and empowered to bring hope to the world.
Dear Brothers, consecrated men and women are rightly recognized as “witnesses and artisans of that plan of communion which stands at the centre of history according to God” (Vita Consecrata VC 39). Please assure the men and women Religious in your territories of my appreciation of the prophetic contribution they are making to ecclesial life in your nations. I am confident that, faithful to their essential nature and respective charisms, they will bear bold witness to the specifically Christian “gift of self for love of the Lord Jesus and, in him, of every member of the human family” (ibid.,3).
For your own part, I encourage you to ensure that Religious are welcomed and supported in their efforts to contribute to the common task of spreading God’s Kingdom. One of the most beautiful aspects of the Church’s history is surely her schools of spirituality. By articulating and sharing these living treasures with the laity, Religious will do much to enhance the vibrancy of ecclesial life within your jurisdictions. They will help to dispel the notion that communion means mere uniformity as they witness to the vitality of the Holy Spirit enlivening the Church in every generation.
I wish to conclude by briefly reiterating the importance of the promotion of marriage and family life in your region. Your efforts in this field stand at the heart of the evangelization of culture and contribute much to the well-being of society as a whole. This vital apostolate, in which many priests and Religious are already engaged, rightly belongs also to the laity. The growing complexity of matters regarding the family – including the advances in biomedical science about which I spoke recently to Korea’s Ambassador to the Holy See – raises the question of providing appropriate training for those committed to working in this area. In this regard, I wish to draw your attention to the valuable contribution made by the Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family Life now present in many parts of the world.
Lastly, dear Brothers, I ask you to convey to your people my particular gratitude for their generosity to the universal Church. Both the growing number of missionaries and the contributions offered by the laity are an eloquent sign of their selfless spirit. I am also aware of the practical gestures of reconciliation undertaken for the well-being of those in North Korea. I encourage these initiatives and invoke Almighty God’s providential care upon all North Koreans. Throughout the ages, Asia has given the Church and the world a host of heroes of the faith who are commemorated in the great song of praise: Te martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus. May they stand as perennial witnesses to the truth and love which all Christians are called to proclaim. With fraternal affection I commend you to the intercession of Mary, model of all disciples, and I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing to you and the priests, Religious, and lay faithful of your Dioceses and Prefecture.
Hall of the Popes
Thursday, 6 December 2007
Dear Friends,
I offer a cordial welcome to you, the members of the joint international commission sponsored by the Baptist World Alliance and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. I am pleased that you have chosen as the site of your meeting this city of Rome, where the Apostles Peter and Paul proclaimed the Gospel and crowned their witness to the Risen Lord by the shedding of their blood. It is my hope that your conversations will bear abundant fruit for the progress of dialogue and the increase of understanding and cooperation between Catholics and Baptists.
The theme which you have chosen for this phase of contacts – The Word of God in the Life of the Church: Scripture, Tradition and Koinonia – offers a promising context for the examination of such historically controverted issues as the relationship between Scripture and Tradition, the understanding of Baptism and the sacraments, the place of Mary in the communion of the Church, and the nature of oversight and primacy in the Church’s ministerial structure. If our hope for reconciliation and greater fellowship between Baptists and Catholics is to be realized, issues such as these need to be faced together, in a spirit of openness, mutual respect and fidelity to the liberating truth and saving power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
As believers in Christ, we acknowledge him as the one mediator between God and humanity (1Tm 2,5), our Saviour, our Redeemer. He is the cornerstone (Ep 2,21 1P 2,4-8); and the head of the body, which is the Church (Col 1,18). In this Advent season, we look to his coming with prayerful expectation. Today, as ever, the world needs our common witness to Christ and to the hope brought by the Gospel. Obedience to the Lord’s will should constantly spur us, then, to strive for that unity so movingly expressed in his priestly prayer: “that they may all be one… so that the world may believe” (Jn 17,21). For the lack of unity between Christians “openly contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to the world, and harms the most holy cause of proclaiming the good news to every creature” (Unitatis Redintegratio UR 1).
Dear friends, I offer you my cordial good wishes and the assurance of my prayers for the important work which you have undertaken. Upon your conversations, and upon each of you and your loved ones, I gladly invoke the Holy Spirit’s gifts of wisdom, understanding, strength and peace.
Clementine Hall
Thursday, 6 December 2007
Your Eminences,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters
It is a cause of great joy to me to welcome you on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, founded by the Pope who desired it, my venerable Predecessor, Benedict XV. That Pope's times were times of war, whereas he worked so hard for peace! Moreover, in order to guarantee peace he launched various appeals, and in 1917, the year your Institute was founded, he drafted a practical peace plan, a detailed project which unfortunately was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, in the space of a few months he set up three monumental works of incomparable value to guarantee peace within the Church: the Congregation for the Oriental Church, later renamed: "for the Oriental Churches"; the Pontifical Oriental Institute for the study of the theological, liturgical, juridical and cultural aspects that constitute knowledge of the Christian East; and the Codex Iuris Canonici.
Thank you for your visit, dear friends! I greet you all with affection. In the first place, I greet Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, whom I thank for expressing the sentiments of all; I greet Cardinal Spidlík, the Prelates present, Fr Kolvenbach, Prepositor General of the Society of Jesus, the students and all the members of the Community of the Pontifical Oriental Institute. I extend my affectionate thoughts to all those who in these past 90 years have contributed to making your Institute respond ever better to the expectations of the Church and the world.
So it was that within the space of five and a half months Pope Benedict XV, with whom I feel a special bond, created the Congregation for the Oriental Churches - on 1 May - and the Oriental Institute - on 15 October. It was the Oriental Catholic Churches that were to benefit from them, enjoying a regime more consonant with their traditions under the gaze of the Roman Pontiffs, who never ceased to manifest their concern with gestures of effective support, such as, for example, inviting numerous Oriental-rite students to come here to Rome to increase their knowledge of the universal Church. Difficult periods have sometimes harshly tried these Ecclesial Communities, which remain close in spite of being physically distant from Rome, through their fidelity to the See of Peter. Yet their progress and staunch perseverance in difficulties would have been unthinkable without the constant support they could find in the Pontifical Oriental Institute, this oasis of peace and study, a meeting place for various scholars, professors, writers and editors, among the best experts on the Christian East. The Library, which is the jewel of this Institute, deserves special mention. It was founded by my Predecessor, Pius XI, a former librarian of the Ambrosiana and a lavish patron of the historical collection of the Pontifical Oriental Institute's library. This library is rightly famous throughout the world, as well as being one of the best libraries on the Christian East. One of my commitments is to enlarge it further, as a sign of the Church of Rome's interest in knowledge of the Christian East and as a means of eliminating possible prejudices that could damage the cordial and harmonious coexistence of Christians. Actually, I am convinced that the promotion of study also has effective ecumenical value, since drawing from the sapiential patrimony of the Christian East is an enrichment to all.
In this regard the Pontifical Oriental Institute constitutes an outstanding example of all that Christian wisdom can offer to those wishing to acquire an ever more exact knowledge of the Oriental Churches or to deepen that orientation in life according to the Spirit, who represents a subject on which the Christian East rightly boasts a very rich tradition. These are not only precious treasures for academicians, but also for all members of the Church. Thanks to the availability of a wide range of editions of the Oriental Fathers, today they are no longer treasures "under lock and key". It is the task of students at the Pontifical Oriental Institute to decipher and interpret them authoritatively, to work out dogmatic syntheses on the Trinitarian God, on Jesus Christ and on the Church, on Grace and on the Sacraments, to reflect on eternal life, of which we may have a foretaste in advance in liturgical celebrations.
Dear Professors, I express to you in particular my deep appreciation of all the good you do, dedicating your valuable time to your students. I thank the Society of Jesus with affection; for the past 85 years the Pontifical Oriental Institute has been entrusted to its academic competence and apostolic zeal. I warmly wish you every good, dear students who have come to Rome in order to share with so many others from every part of the world a direct contact with the heart of the universal Church. And my gratitude could not overlook a very important link; I am alluding to those who make an important contribution, although not directly involved in academic work: they are the friends who support the Pontifical Oriental Institute with their solidarity; the benefactors to whom we are so deeply indebted for the material progress of this institution; the personnel, without whom it would be impossible to assure its daily functioning. I say "thank you" to them all from the bottom of my heart and, as a pledge of the divine reward, I impart my Apostolic Blessing to you with affection.
Speechs 2007