Speeches 1980

February 1980


TO THE AFRICAN COMMUNITY OF ROME


Friday, 2 February 1980




Monsieur le Cardinal,
Excellences,
Mesdames, Messieurs,
Chers amis,

Vous êtes les bienvenus! Je connais l’hospitalité africaine, si cordiale et si généreuse. Aujourd’hui, vous êtes mes hôtes. Puissiez vous vous sentir heureux, à l’aise, comme chez vous, dans cette maison qui se veut accueillante à l’univers entier, accueillante comme le coeur du Christ dont je suis le serviteur.

1. Je remercie votre digne interprète de ses paroles pleines de délicatesse et de sagesse. Et je suis très touché de ce désir que nombre d’entre vous avaient manifesté de me rencontrer. A vrai dire, vous êtes venus au-devant de mon propre souhait. Depuis longtemps, je voulais réserver un temps et des contacts, sinon à tel ou tel pays africain - ils sont si nombreux - du moins à l’ensemble des fils de ce grand continent qui résident à Rome.

Je vous salue donc très cordialement dans la diversité de vos fonctions, dans la diversité des peuples, des ethnies, des communautés religieuses que vous représentez.

Les Chefs des Missions diplomatiques accréditées près le Saint-Siège sont déjà familiarisés avec cette maison, et je suis heureux de saluer aujourd’hui à côté d’eux tous leurs collaborateurs et le personnel de leurs Ambassades. Puis il y a les diplomates des autres Ambassades en Italie, les experts des missions auprès de la FAO ou d’autres organismes internationaux, tous ceux que leur travail, leurs études ont fixés pour quelque temps à Rome, avec leurs familles.

Je fais une place à part aux prêtres, séminaristes, religieuses, catéchistes, laïcs qui poursuivent ici leur formation chrétienne-ecclésiastique, religieuse, apostolique: ils ont un titre particulier à se réunir eux aussi autour du Pape. A tous, merci de votre visite.

Certes, vous n’avez pas tous les mêmes convictions religieuses; votre histoire, vos traditions, votre appartenance ethnique, vous ont marqués de caractéristiques assez diverses. Il ne s’agit pas d’ignorer ces différences, mais bien plutôt de se reconnaître ainsi, de se respecter, de se vouloir du bien, de vivre une certaine solidarité, et surtout de découvrir les lignes convergentes de vos richesses morales et de vos projets capables d’assurer anjourd’hui et demain le bonheur durable, le progrès humain et spirituel des Africains.

2. Tout d’abord, je souhaite à chacun de vous, à chacun de vos foyers, de trouver ici, à Rome, les conditions de son épanouissement. Bien que la population soit ici familière et accueillante, il y a toujours, comme pour toute colonie étrangère, un dépaysement à surmonter pour ce qui est des habitudes, de la langue.

J’espère qu’aucune famille africaine ne reste isolée, mais que vous avez l’occasion de nouer, avec vos hôtes romains, et entre vous d’abord, des relations amicales, d’organiser des rencontres, de vous apporter l’entraide nécessaire, dans la ligne de la solidarité africaine qui ne laisse de côté aucun des parents ou amis.Je souhaite aussi, en ce qui concerne les chrétiens, que vous arriviez toujours à établir les liens nécessaires avec une communauté chrétienne, paroissiale ou autre, afin que vous puissiez entretenir votre foi, la développer, en témoigner.

En effet, loin d’être une parenthèse dans votre vie spirituelle, votre séjour romain devrait lui donner une dimension nouvelle, grâce aux témoignages de la foi qui sont inscrits dans l’histoire et dans l’art de cette ville, ou qui sont vécus aujourd’hui par les personnes et les institutions catholiques. Mes voeux se font particulièrement chaleureux pour vos enfants, si naturellement débordants de joie et de vitalité, afin qu’ils bénéficient de ce qui est essentiel en cette période importante de leur formation.

3. Mais vous portez, ou devez porter des soucis qui débordent le cadre de vos personnes, de vos familles. Beaucoup d’entre vous sont ici-même au service de leur pays, délégués par lui pour une mission de diplomates ou d’experts. Beaucoup viennent se préparer à mieux le servir, à mieux servir l’Afrique, grâce à la formation théologique ou pastorale qu’ils parachèvent dans les instituts romains d’éducation catholique.

Que puis-je souhaiter pour tous et chacun de vos pays, pour l’ensemble du continent africain? Mes voeux se résument en une phrase: que vos peuples sachent assumer les mutations souvent accélérées qui leur sont nécessaires ou imposées par les circonstances, avec le maximum de sagesse et d’humanité, en sauvegardant et même en développant, quitte à les purifier, les valeurs authentiques de l’âme africaine.

4. Pour tout le continent africain, c’est un passage qui est à la fois plein d’espoir et semé d’embûches. Vos pays s’ouvrent désormais, de par leur propre choix, aux possibilités du développement de la science, de la technique, de l’instruction, et à beaucoup d’influences extérieures.

Mais le progrès qui peut et doit en résulter en multipliant les biens matériels et le savoir, demeure très inégal, selon les possibilités des pays et l’entraide dont ils disposent; et il s’accompagne d’un certain nombre de phénomènes qu’il est difficile de maîtriser pour les rendre vraiment humains: transformation de l’économie rurale, industrialisation avec le caractère plus mécanique du travail, urbanisation massive avec le déracinement et l’anonymat qui affectent les banlieues des grandes métropoles, nombre de jeunes instruits devenus plus allergiques au travail manuel et se trouvant sans emploi correspondant à leurs capacités...

Il y a un risque de matérialisme[1], d’individualisme, de désagrégation de la famille, d’affaiblissement des valeurs morales et spirituelles, qui contrecarrent la vision spirituelle et le sens de la solidarité si ancrés dans l’âme africaine. L’Occident lui-même, par exemple, il faut bien l’avouer, n’a pas toujours su, ne sait pas toujours vivre de façon satisfaisante cette mutation inéluctable. Je souhaite de tout coeur que l’Afrique y réussisse, avec son génie propre.

5. The task is all the more delicate in that a certain number of African countries are also experiencing particular difficulties of their own. Ideological struggles, often brought in from outside, have penetrated certain spheres. In some regions racial discrimination has increased beyond measure, and has rightly aroused strong feelings and condemnation by world public opinion. It has also evoked courageous reactions on the part of the Bishops and also of the Holy See.

My purpose in recalling these things is to emphasize the urgent nature of the work to be done, by Africans themselves, with the proper civic sense, the sense of service to the nation. And agreements already achieved, equitable "modi vivendi" and truly democratic political and social systems show that it is possible, in spite of obstacles and difficulties met along the way, to unite the living forces in order to build up solid nations, noted for the humaness of their civilization.

6. These hopes are all the more well-founded in that the African soul has resources that must be safeguarded, developed, and I dare to say, liberated. My predecessor Paul VI echoed this in his message to the episcopate and all the peoples of Africa, on 29 October 1967, and on several later occasions in the course of his pontificate, notably during his journey to Uganda.

In an almost spontaneous way, Africans link their lives with the world of the unseen, they recognize the universal presence of God, the source of life, and they pray to him willingly. They have a sense of human dignity and respect for human life.

For them, children are a blessing. Under the authority of the parents, the family plays a great role, not only of protection but also of initiation into the things of life, into practical solidarity. And sharing in community life, thought of as an extension of the family, is a natural tendency. I do not need to speak further about these traditional values which are familiar to you. The development of these values, religious and moral, will greatly assist in the successful development of your civilizations, in a happy blending of the old with the new.

7. Of course, as in all the other continents, in Europe, America and Asia, these ancestral tendencies need to be freed from the limits that they may have suffered from in practice. This is what from the point of view of Christians we call the evangelization of cultures. For us, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, his "Good News", does not come to replace these traditions, but to enlighten them, to strengthen their good elements, to purify them from countervalues with which sin has tarnished them, to enrich " these cultures by helping them to go beyond the defective or even inhuman features in them, and by communicating to their legitimate values the fullness of Christ"[2].

This is true of the sense of God, whose fatherhood Jesus reveals to us in an unheard of manner. It is true of the family, which must be strengthened in the new social circumstances: at Nairobi, in 1978, the Assembly of African Bishops studied this question, and the coming Synod of Bishops will deal with it in a special way. It is true of the sense of solidarity which should lead to a wider cooperation and collaboration, with respect for individuals and a properly understood freedom.

To help save the African soul - this is what the Church wishes to prepare for in the theological and pastoral training centres attended by Africans, whether in Rome or in Africa. This is what she wishes to achieve on the local level in Africa through catechesis, education, and the witness given by so many communities.

She knows that in this continent other great religions are also helping people to live the human reality with a fraternal and spiritual outlook. Accordingly, she understands the urgency of a dialogue between these great religions, and even of practical collaboration which respects the specific character of the faith.

In these circumstances the African countries can provide the concert of the nations with a contribution all their own. It will be a contribution of great worth, since it will bear the mark of the African values of which I have spoken. The universal Church too expects to be enriched by the witness of the Christian communities of Africa. This includes the countries that until recently were bringing the Gospel to those communities.

8. In return, it is natural and desirable, as your spokesman has stated, that priests, religious, and lay missionaries from other continents should continue to support the African workforce, which is not yet numerous enough for the religious needs, and in particular that they should unselfishly assist the local clergy that have now taken charge. The new outlook opened up by my esteemed predecessor Pius XII in the Encyclical "Fidei Donum" is more than ever valid and I shall not fail to recall it.

Today’s Church must be educated for this fraternal sharing.

9. I have already had occasion to express my good wishes to the students in the ecclesiastical faculties. To the lay people who are at present exercising their mission or practising their profession in Rome I also offer my warm good wishes and encourage them to put into operation, to the extent of their responsibilities, the ideals without which our world could not live in peace: the development of food and other resources, their distribution, the establishment of just relations, the safeguarding of human rights, the advancement and necessary solidarity between peoples.

Finally, you must have felt that I wish to visit Africa as I have begun to do especially for Europe and America. The difficulty is that there are so many countries in your continent - you here represent no less than thirty-one! - each of them with its own titles of merit and special reasons for receiving a visit from the Pope!

I shall have to limit my journey at first to a few countries. But I wish through them to honour and encourage the whole of Africa, as I am doing today. And I can already tell you that I am thinking of undertaking the journey this very year.

I must leave you for today. But I do not leave without praying God to inspire, assist, and richly bless you yourselves, your families, your fellow-countrymen, and all who are dear to you. May God always lead the people of Africa on the paths of happiness and peace.

[1] Cfr. Pauli VI Populorum Progressio, 41.

[2] Ioannis Pauli PP. II Catechesi Tradendae,




TO THE NATO DEFENSE COLLEGE

Thursday, 7 February 1980



Dear friends,

In the past years the NATO Defense College has assembled a number of times in this hall, and I am happy to welcome you today at the end of your fifty-fifth study session.

I was indeed pleased to be informed that your session was concerned with cultural and moral objectives, and with the pursuit of an ever greater international solidarity. There is truly a close relationship between these realities and the great cause of peace - a peace built on the truth about man.

At the beginning of this year, in my Message for the World Day of Peace, I made an appeal to everyone who wants to strengthen peace on earth. I appealed for an effort "to stabilize from within the tottering and ever threatened edifice of peace by putting its content of truth back into it"[1]. And I believe that you are in a position to promote peace through its own foremost resource of truth.

Through observation and study you are able to verify the fact that all forms of non-truth militate against peace. Nowhere is this more evident than in a mistaken ideal of man and the driving force within him. In this context, I stated in my Peace Message: "The first lie, the basic falsehood, is to refuse to believe in man, with all his capacity for greatness"[2].

The realization of the dignity that we share in the human family leads us all to a readiness for sincere and continual dialogue. Against any odds the truth about humanity must sustain hope among fellowmen, calling for the peaceful co-existence of all human beings. Here we see the pressing need for greater sincerity in the human family, the need for renewed effort to reject that deplorable distrust and suspicion which reach their culmination in the vertiginous escalation of the arms race.
And so all worthy initiatives - large and small - of brotherhood, of international solidarity, of friendship, of mutual respect based on a common nature and a common destiny, are indeed to be encouraged, supported and promoted.

When, to a clear expression of the truth about man, we add an honest and enlightened sense of history which perceives that, in practice, the cause of peace and justice has never been successful when linked with violent struggle and the suppression of the deepest human aspirations, we are confirmed in our convinction that the truth about man pervades the ways of peace and is the condition for all progress in the modem world.

May Almighty God sustain your hearts in peace and infuse peace into your homes. May he give you deep insight and unflinching courage to pursue the goals of truth, the power of peace.

And may the peace that radiates from the children’s smiles convince the world of the truth that makes us free.

[1] Ioannis Pauli PP. II Nuntius scripto datus ob diem ad pacem fovendam toto orbe terrarum Calendis Ianuariis a. 1980 celebrandum: de veritate pacis robore, 1: AAS 71 (1979) 1573-1574.

[2] Ioannis Pauli PP. II Nuntius scripto datus ob diem ad pacem fovendam toto orbe terrarum Calendis Ianuariis a. 1980 celebrandum: de veritate pacis robore, 2: AAS 71 (1979) 1574.




TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF

BUDDHISM AND SHINTO IN JAPAN

Wednesday, 20 February 1980



Venerable friends, representatives of Buddhism and Shinto in Japan,

I am very happy to welcome you today. I greet you first of all as sons of the noble and industrious people of Japan. Your country has made outstanding progress in many fields. At the same time it has remained attached to its own lifestyle, with its emphasis on respect, harmony and art.

The Catholic Church expresses her esteem for your religions and for your high spiritual values, such as purity, detachment of heart, love for the beauty of nature, and benevolence and compassion for everything that lives.

It gives me great joy to know that you have come here to carry forward your dialogue and collaboration with the Holy See’s Secretariat for Non-Christians. The themes you are discussing together, each from the standpoint of his own religion, are the relationship between man and nature and the relationship between religion and culture. I am deeply convinced that these are themes of great importance for the future of our world. Indeed, this conviction of mine is reflected in my first Encyclical Letter "Redemptor Hominis". Be assured, then, that I shall follow this dialogue and subsequent ones with interest and appreciation.

On this earth we are all pilgrims to the Absolute and Eternal, who alone can save and satisfy the heart of the human person. Let us seek his will together for the good of all humanity. Thank you for your visit. I hope your staty in Rome will be a happy one. Please convey my cordial greetings and blessings to your families and friends in Japan.



TO THE STUDENTS OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

OF THE ECUMENICAL INSTITUTE OF BOSSEY

Saturday, 23 February 1980



My dear friends of the Graduate School of the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey,

You have spent the last five months at Bossey, near Geneva, in what must have been a deep ecumenical experience. Reflecting together on the Kingdom of God and the future of humanity, you have come closer together in that knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ which are at the foundation of all serious ecumenical endeavours.

At the same time I am confident that you have come to a greater knowledge of and respect for the variety of traditions existing among Christians. You have developed a new awareness of the necessity of striving, with sincerity and fidelity to truth, to overcome those differences which still prevent Christians from expressing fully the faith and communion which are the Lord’s will for them.

In prayer, moreover, you will have gained new insights into just how much perfect Christian unity is a gift of God’s grace - a gift to be sought humbly and perseveringly in the name of Jesus.

Today I am very happy to welcome you to Rome as you spend the final week of your programme in meetings with the offices, communities and faculties of the Catholic Church here. May these first-hand contacts help you to deepen your genuine understanding of the institutions and life of the Catholic Church.

Be assured that my prayers accompany you as you return to your homes and to your Churches, determined to be more faithful servants of the Lord, and instruments of his peace and his justice among all those whose lives you may touch in the future.

And may the Holy Spirit assist you to grow "in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory now and in the day of eternity. Amen"[1].

[1] 2 Petr. 3, 18.

                                                      March 1980




TO KEITH JOHNSON

AMBASSADOR OF JAMAICA TO THE HOLY SEE


Friday, 21 March 1980




Mr Ambassador,

It is with much pleasure that I welcome Your Excellency as the first Ambassador of Jamaica to the Holy See and greet through you your country’s people and government. A new relationship is beginning between the Holy See and Jamaica, one that will make it possible to have closer cooperation both on the local and the international level.

Your Excellency has mentioned the understanding and collaboration that happily already exist between the Catholic Church and your country. With God’s help, your mission will further deepen that understanding and strengthen that collaboration, with fruitful results for the good of the people of Jamaica and of the world.

Your mission, indeed, is intended not only for the benefit of your own country, but also for that of the one human family to which all peoples belong. I look forward to cooperation for the promotion of human rights and freedoms, for the safeguarding of peace, for the advancement of everyone’s possibility to live a life in keeping with human dignity - in short, for the service of man in his wholeness, in the manifold riches of his spiritual and material existence.

I have deep respect for the Christian traditions of the people of Jamaica. Those traditions are a promise of even closer cooperation, in recognition of the preeminence of the spiritual over the material.

They will also ensure, through awareness of the values of the spirit, that developments in the fields of material prosperity, technology and skills are at the service of what really constitutes the human being.

May God make the new relationship between Jamaica and the Holy See prosper. I pray that he may assist Your Excellency in the fulfilment of your high mission and I invoke his blessings on you and on the government and all the people of Jamaica.





TO JOHN BERNARD MOLI

AMBASSADOR OF UGANDA

Friday, 21 March 1980



Mr Ambassador,

I gladly welcome you to the Vatican and, in accepting the Letters by which you are accredited as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Uganda to the Holy See, I would ask that you transmit to His Excellency President Binaisa and to the Government and people of Uganda my own greetings and best wishes.

In receiving Your Excellency today, I assure you that the Holy See is following closely the developments which are taking place in your country, and is sincerely interested in the welfare of all the Ugandan people. For this reason I willingly reaffirm the Church’s commitment to continue to provide both material and spiritual assistance through the local clergy and the missionaries and through her schools and many other institutions.

I am very glad to hear you make reference to the Ugandan martyrs who courageously laid down their lives for Christ. In this regard I am happy that in the near future a new church will be consecrated to their memory here in Rome. I hope that this church will serve as a symbol of the deep esteem of the Bishop of Rome for the beloved people of Uganda. It is also my fervent wish that the Ugandan martyrs, while witnessing to the supreme values of the spirit, will always remind us of the inviolable dignity of every human being.

It gives me pleasure to hear you express satisfaction with your assignment as Ambassador to the Holy See, and to hear of your desire to contribute to the search for international peace and harmony. I wish you success in your mission and, for its accomplishment, you are assured of all necessary assistance on the part of the Holy See.

I am appreciative of the desires of the President of Uganda to visit the Holy See, and I look forward to having the opportunity to receive him. In the meantime I kindly request that you convey to His Excellency my heartfelt wishes and prayers for the spiritual and material progress of the beloved people of Uganda.




TO RAYMOND TOTO PRAWIRA SUPRADJA

AMBASSADOR OF INDONESIA TO THE HOLY SEE

Saturday, 22 March 1980



Mr Ambassador,

With pleasure I accept the Letter with which His Excellency President Soeharto accredits Your Excellency as your country’s Ambassador to the Holy See and I express my gratitude for his kind good wishes, which I cordially reciprocate.

The changes in every walk of human life to which Your Excellency has made reference are indeed striking. They are causing bewilderment in many minds, both in the countries that are considered economically more advanced and in those that are looked on as less developed in this aspect. The bewilderment is mingled with fear: fear not only of the strange and unknown but also of the real dangers arising from the products of man’s own genius.

But these changes also provide new possibilities for betterment, possibilities that will prevail if the advances in science and technology are matched by a corresponding development in moral attitudes, so that man becomes truly better, that is to say more mature spiritually, more aware of the dignity of his humanity, more responsible, more open to others, especially the neediest and the weakest, and readier to share with others and assist them.

In view of the message of truth and love that the Church has the duty to bring to the world, she has the obligation to try to ensure this moral development, to make every endeavour to see that the right course is set for the whole of development and progress.

In Indonesia, the Church will most willingly work for the good of the people and their human advancement. She has long been doing so through such institutions as her hospitals and schools and with generous collaboration by missionary personnel unselfishly assisting the local Church.

May God grant that your noble people will continue to advance in material prosperity and above all in spiritual riches, harmoniously joining their endeavours in pursuit of the true welfare of all. I invoke his blessings on the whole of Indonesia, on its leaders and on yourself and your important mission.


May 1980


MESSAGES OF JOHN PAUL II

FOR THE OPENING OF THE

NATIONAL PASTORAL CONGRESS IN LIVERPOOL

Friday, 2 May 1980



It is with joy that I send you this message of greeting, as you gather in the Cathedral of Christ the King for the opening of your National Pastoral Congress.

Your two thousand delegates - drawn from every part of England and Wales, and including priests, deacons, men and women religious, and laity - have gathered at the invitation of your Bishops and under their guidance. As members of the Pilgrim Church you come together to share information and to take stock of what has so far been done, in fidelity to the Gospel, to implement the decrees of the Second Vatican Council. In this you are following my declared intention when I was made Pope: to be faithful to the Council and to strive to bring it to fruition. May God bless and guide you in this important resolve.

I have been informed of how you have made careful preparations in your dioceses and religious congregations and organizations for this special occasion. Your desire is to achieve a deep spiritual renewal of your lives. You wish to strengthen your common commitment to the mission which our Lord Jesus Christ entrusted to his Church, a mission in which all the People of God share through Baptism and Confirmation. I pray that your work together in these days will bear great fruit. And I invite you to place all your trust in God “whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine".

I send my greetings also to the observers from the other Christian communities who have come to share with their Catholic brothers and sisters in this significant religious celebration. As the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council reminded us: " Let all Christ’s faithful remember that the more purely they strive to live according to the Gospel, the more they are fostering and even practising Christian unity".

I greet too the civic authorities and official representatives who are present, and I offer the expression of may respect and friendship to the whole city of Liverpool in the celebration of its centenary.

As these words reach you, I shall be visiting the people of Africa. Mindful of the universality of the Church and of the unity in Christ in which we all share, I ask for your prayers that my pilgrimage of faith will help to build up the entire kingdom of God, and give special encouragement to the Church in Africa.

During these next days, the Congress candle will burn in the sanctuary of your Cathedral as a reminder of our risen life in Christ and of his invitation to us to share in that life. May it also be a sign of your faith, burning brightly as a sign of hope to the world. And may it symbolize your trust in Christ, who is the way and the truth and the life.

May the grace and peace of our Saviour Jesus Christ be with you all.



Venerable Brothers,
Dear brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,

I am very happy to have this opportunity to speak to you, the delegates to the National Pastoral Congress, as you begin your consideration of important issues affecting the life of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

You have come together in the name of Jesus Christ. You gather in a spirit of hope and expectation, trusting in the promise of our Saviour: “Where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them”. You desire, during these days, to evaluate the life and work of the Church, to deepen your prayer, to open your hearts ever wider to the call for constant conversion, to suggest the way forward for the future.

This is a great responsibility and opportunity for all of you. May you carry out your task with courage and humility, seeking the light and strength of the Holy Spirit in order to be faithful to the Gospel. The Catholic people of your countries have a long tradition of faithfulness to Christ and to the See of Peter, as is witnessed in the lives of your martyrs. Let this tradition of faithfulness which you have inherited continue to be the hallmark of your lives.

At the beginning of the Congress I extend my congratulations for the initiative you are taking in shared responsibility. It is an initiative which bears witness to the variety of gifts in the Body of Christ, and to the vital mission of all baptized personne in the Church who, in union with the hierarchy and under their direction, are building up the Kingdom of God.

Shared responsibility in the Church is based upon the conviction that it is one and the same Spirit of truth who directs the hearts of the faithful and who guarantees the Magisterium of the pastors of the flock. In this regard, I would like to recall what I said to a group of Bishops in Rome on the occasion of their ad limina visit: In the community of the faithful - which must always maintain Catholic unity with the Bishops and the Apostolic See - there are great insights of faith. The Holy Spirit is active in enlightening the minds of the faithful with his truth, and in inflaming their hearts with his love. But these insights of faith and this sensus fidelium are not independent of the magisterium of the Church which is an instrument of the same Holy Spirit and is assisted by him. It is only when the faithful have been nourished by the word of God, faithfully transmitted in its purity and integrity’ that their own charisms are fully operative and fruitful. Once the word of God is faithfully proclaimed to the community and is accepted, it brings forth fruits of justice and holiness of life in abundance".

From the time of my election to the Chair of Peter, I have considered it to be my duty to continue the work of the Second Vatican Council. In order to fulfil this task I have felt the need to call attention to the Church’s understanding of her own nature and mission, as set out in the Magna Charta of the Council, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church “Lumen Gentium”. Again and again we need to ponder the mystery of the Church, striving to appreciate ever more keenly this visible community of faith, hope and charity through which Christ communicates truth and grace to all men and women.

On this occasion I ask each of you to meditate on the mystery of the Church and to ponder the marvellous ways in which God’s saving power is effected through her. Consider your own role in the mission of the Church, whether it be as a priest, deacon, religious or lay-person. For each baptized person is called to participate actively in the Church’s mission so that in our day she may make her presence felt in action. Above all let us realize that the Church is a community of prayer.

It is especially in prayer that Jesus unites us to himself in his work of salvation and service.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: "tot us not lose sight of Jesus who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection". Let us not lose sight of his guiding word. Let us not lose sight of his Spirit abiding in our hearts. In everything, trust in Jesus. Trust in his grace working within you and inviting you to sacrifice and holiness. Trust in his presence in the Eucharist and in the whole Church. Trust in the power of his Gospel to be the light which will lead you into the future. "tot the message of Christ in all its richness find a home in you"; for it is his justice, his compassion, his love which you bring to the world.

Again I ask Almighty God to bless and guide you, and to keep you close for ever to Christ, who is the way and the truth and the life. Together let us look forward to the day when - perhaps in your own dear land - rejoicing in the title of Mary’s dowry, we may sing together the hymn comosed for your Congress:

"Truth on my tongue, his way to guide my walking -And I shall rive, not I but Christ in me".

And it is in the name of Christ that I bless you all: in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.



Speeches 1980