Speeches 1986 - Friday, 26 September 1986
Mr President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
1. THE PRESENT Study Week on Persistent Meteo-Oceanographic Anomalies and Teleconnections offers a fresh proof of the intention of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to be of service to humanity, especially by its interest in the main scientific problems of the day. The theme of your Symposium is in fact one of the most urgent at the present time.
I extend a most cordial greeting to the eminent specialists in the fundamental oceanographic and atmospheric problems that you are dealing with. I am pleased to see that you come from many different parts of the world: from North and South America, Europe and Asia. This is yet another demonstration of the harmonious collaboration that exists between scientists and that is of such benefit to world peace.
2. Science does not merely have to study natural phenomena in themselves. It also has to make a decisive intellectual and ethical effort to foresee the development and consequences of those phenomena, in order to safeguard and enhance the welfare of humanity. This is the aim that you have set yourselves. You have been studying phenomena such as E1 Niño, the monsoons and their world-wide effects, the causes of the climatic disturbances in the eastern zones of the Pacific Ocean, as well as the prolonged drought in the Sahel.
The studies which you have carried out in the Institutes which you represent individually and which you have been dealing with in the tranquil surroundings of the Casina of Pius IV, the seat of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, will enable you to provide those who are threatened by these and other negative phenomena with timely weather forecasts, thus making it possible to take the necessary steps for avoiding the most serious effects of approaching natural disasters. In various parts of the world it is now possible, as a result of dedicated efforts, to set up systems for recording climatic phenomena and to gather facts on a world-wide scale which affect the entire globe.
3. Through your work you are carrying out the Biblical command to subdue the earth, to control the catastrophes that harm the human family, and to make the earth obedient to our service. Science encourages legitimate human curiosity to know the universe and to admire and contemplate its beauty and goodness. In this way we enter into communion with God himself, who looked upon what he had created and saw that it was very good. But we are also called by God to control the movements of violence and death that occur in nature, subject as it is to inevitable adjustments of its balance. We are called to discover new sources of energy, to replace those that are nonrenewable or that prove to be insufficient. Unfortunately it sometimes happens that, in order to satisfy his unlimited craving for material well-being, man corrupts and squanders the world’s resources, with effects that are especially harmful to those least able to defend themselves, who possess the fewest technical skills, and who inhabit the least hospitable territories.
You, on the other hand, are engaged in the genuine task of the scientist: you are studying in order to contemplate and understand, to control and make fruitful. In the course of your studies, you cannot fail to admire the powerful forces of nature. But at the same time you see that these forces can pose dangers and threats to humanity, and you teach how to dominate them, so that they may be placed at the service of all.
4. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am particularly grateful to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and to its President for bringing you together. I invoke upon you the blessings of God, the Provident Creator, for the studies that you are engaged upon for securing a harmonious environmental balance, which will favour human security and dignity, and which will especially benefit those who are unprepared and defenceless in the face of natural catastrophes.
Friday, 26 September 1986
Dear Friends,
I AM PLEASED to greet you, the Trustees of Serra International, meeting in Rome. To you and your spouses I extend a very warm welcome and express my good wishes for your deliberations. Your presence here today offers me the special opportunity of reflecting on the specific apostolate of Serra International, namely, the promoting and support of vocations to the ministerial priesthood and religious life, and the encouragement of your own members to fulfil with ever greater zeal their Christian mission of service in the world.
The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Priestly Formation, when speaking of the important work for Church vocations, stresses that “the task of fostering vocations belongs to the whole Christian community, which should do so in the first place by living in a fully Christian way". It is therefore true to say that vocations to the priesthood and religious life are a proof of the Church’s vitality. We can borrow from the Gospel parable of the sower and say that just as soil proves its worth by the abundance of the harvests it produces so a local ecclesial community gives proof of its strength and maturity by the number of vocations that flourish there.
Priestly vocations are not only the proof of the strong faith life of a parish or diocese, but are also an essential condition for the Church’s life. She finds her vitality in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which is the centre and summit of all evangelization and of full ecclesial life. Hence one sees the indispensable need for the ordained minister, who alone is able to celebrate the Eucharist. And this is not to mention the presence of the priest in the Sacrament of Penance which is the primary means established by Christ for the renewal of the soul through the gifts of conversion and reconciliation.
The Church looks with gratitude upon your apostolate of fostering vocations to the ordained ministry and religious life. In this task of promoting vocations the Church commends your persistent prayers and Christian mortification. Equally important is the "progressively more advanced instruction of the faithful, wherein the necessity, nature and excellence of the priestly vocation will be set forth by preaching, catechetics and the various means of social communication"
With this in mind let us look to Mary, the Mother of Jesus and of the Church, as our model and guide in the fostering of Church vocations in our day. In the face of the present need, let us not give in to fear or discouragement, but rather find inspiration in the faith of Mary, "who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord". She gives us confidence to pray, to sacrifice and to work for vocations, even at great personal cost.
The Spirit of Christ is ever calling men and women to dedicate themselves generously to the service of the Church. We must gather in prayer with Mary, as did the disciples after Jesus’ Ascension, in expectation of the Holy Spirit’s coming, so as to implore a new Pentecost of vocations that will renew the face of the earth in our own day.
I assure you of my encouragement of your worthy endeavours, and in the love of Christ I impart to all of you and your loved ones my Apostolic Blessing.
Saturday, 27 September 1986
Dear Friends,
1. I am happy to welcome to the Vatican the members of the Alumni Association of the Academy of American and International Law. I am pleased that you have requested this audience and I wish to take the occasion to assure you of my respect for your important role in society.
This meeting with you calls to mind the words of the prophet Micah: "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God"? Yours is indeed an esteemed and noble profession, one which boasts ancient and modern traditions and which exerts great influence on the stability and well-being of society. For the service you offer safeguards the rights of citizens, implements the demands of justice, and helps to guarantee society’s orderly development in righteousness and freedom.
2. You are called upon to promote justice according to the norms of law. The exercise of your profession requires more than just legal knowledge and expertise. You must also be persons of wisdom and prudence, men and women possessing a vigilant moral commitment and firmly believing in the dignity and inalienable rights of every human being from the first moment of conception until natural death
As lawyers, you possess a deep concern for justice, yet something even more than justice is needed. As I stated in my Encyclical Letter on the mercy of God: "The experience of the past and of our own time demonstrates that justice alone is not enough, that it can even lead to the negation and destruction of itself, if that deeper power, which is love, is not allowed to shape human life in its various dimensions". Certainly one must not minimise the important role and absolute necessity of justice in relations between people; I only wish to point to the higher role and "deeper power" possessed by love. That is why the Prophet encourages us to act justly but also to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.
3. I assure you of my prayers for your deserving efforts in the service of society. The Psalmist of the Old Testament says: "The just will flourish like the palm tree and grow like a Lebanon cedar". As you seek to strengthen in our world the bonds of harmony, stability and peace, may the Lord grant his abundant blessings to you and your families.
Saturday, 27 September 1986
Dear Friends,
It is a pleasure for me to greet you on the occasion of your coming to Rome for the annual meeting of the officers and bureau chiefs of NBC News from throughout the world.
Many of you I already know through your visits to Rome or through your work during my pastoral visits in many different countries. It is a special joy to see you again.
Yours is indeed a very important work – the service of truth, which in turn can contribute significantly to the welfare and freedom of our brothers and sisters, and to the unity and peace of the whole human family. The reporting of news can deepen understanding; it can elicit generous response for the needy, as we saw so dramatically in the case of the victims of the famine in Africa; it can bring the peoples of the world together in a shared experience.
One of those shared experiences is the opportunity to pray together, and I am aware that your network makes it possible for the people of the United States to join with me in the Midnight Mass which I offer in Rome at Christmas.
I am grateful for your work, and I hope that we may communicate together some of the good news about the hidden heroes and heroines of this world who serve their brothers and sisters so selflessly. This news help to bring renewed hope and encouragement to all.
May God grant his abundant blessings to you and your loved ones.
October 1986
Dear Brothers in Christ,
Your are most welcome to Rome, where the Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul preached the Gospel and shed their blood as witnesses of Christ.
Jesus Christ, the “one mediator between God and men... who gave himself as a ransom for all, calls Christians to unity and reconciliation with one another. Christian unity therefore will always be an urgent matter because the Church has the sacred mission of preaching the Gospel of reconciliation.
Every authentic ecumenical effort helps bring Christians closer to Christ. I therefore wish to congratulate you for this special ecumenical journey to Geneva, Canterbury, Constantinople and Rome, sponsored again this year by the Lutheran Church in America for its bishops. And the fact that you are now joined by an Episcopal bishop and a Catholic bishop who are actively involved in ecumenical relations with the Lutheran Churches in the United States points to the ecumenical progress being made. I pray that your dialogues will continue to bear fruit as we seek full unity in faith.
The process of seeking unity is both joyful and painful. There is pain because of the burden of hundreds of years of separations. But if Christ is always the focus of our ecumenical efforts, the pain is eased and the joy increased. As Saint Peter confessed: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God".
I am aware that the Lutheran Church in America and two other Lutheran Churches voted at their Conventions in August to unite and form the new Evangelical Church in America, which is to come into being in 1988. May I take this occasion also to thank you for including a prayer for me during the Lutheran Church in America Convention. Please convey my gratitude for that, and for his message just read, to Bishop James Crumley, to whom I extend my best wishes.
Finally, I ask your prayers for the success of the day of prayer for peace at Assisi, on October 27. As you know, leaders of Christian Communions and of world religions have been invited to give a special prayerful witness for peace that day. The Lord has said: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God". Please pray that with the help of God’s grace this ecumenical and interreligious initiative will be a real contribution to peace in our world.
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ".
October 2, 1986
Dear Friends,
I am pleased to offer a warm welcome to you, the members of the Constitutional Commission of the Swedish Parliament. Your presence here gives me the opportunity to send my cordial greetings once again to His Majesty King Karl Gustaf the Sixteenth and to all the Swedish people.
It was indeed my pleasure three years ago to accept the Letters of Credence of the first Ambassador of Sweden to the Holy See. Though there had been many informal contacts over the years between your country and the Holy See, the establishment of official diplomatic relations began a new era of closer interaction and productive co-operation on many issues. I would refer especially to those of justice and respect for human rights, matters which are of special concern to the international order.
As members of the Swedish Parliament, you are the heirs of a tradition dating back more than five hundred and fifty years to the first meeting of the Riksdag in 1435. Furthermore, you are the successors of the earliest Parliament on the European continent in which all the classes of society were represented.
You have been inspired by hundreds of years of democracy and mutual respect among your citizens. I wish to encourage you to continue to give leadership in efforts aimed at eliminating all forms of violence in society, and particularly to work against terrorism which strikes at the heart of the sentiments of humanity and seeks to destroy the democratic constitution of the State. Only too recently we were all dismayed by the tragic assassination of your Prime Minister, Olof Palme. This ruthless act, while it greatly saddens us, must not cause us to despair. Rather it should serve to promote work for non-violence and for the social justice and mutual understanding that your country prizes so highly.
More than a thousand years ago, missionaries brought to Sweden the Gospel message of fraternal charity and reconciliation, the message that still today remains the most fundamental means for establishing and safeguarding peaceful coexistence. During this International Year of Peace I encourage you to continue to support the ideal of universal brotherhood and to consider how it can best be served. It is my profound conviction, as I stated in my World Day of Peace Message for the current year, that “"Peace is a value with no frontiers". It is a value that responds to the hopes and aspirations of all people and all nations, of young and old, and of all men and women of good will”.
I thank you for your presence here today, and I assure you of my good wishes for your work on behalf of the Government and people of Sweden. Upon you and your country I invoke the abundant blessings of Almighty God.
Dear Friends in our Lord Jesus Christ,
It is a joy for me to welcome you, the participants in the Conference of Secretaries of Christian World Communions. The city of Rome, hallowed as it is by the blood of the early Christian martyrs, is surely a place where all those who would bear witness to Christ today can find new strength and fresh inspiration.
The very word " communion " reminds us once again of the profound reflections on the nature of the Church to be found in the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. The Decree on Ecumenism refers to those who believe in Christ and have been properly baptised as being "in a certain, though imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church". It also proposes "full ecclesiastical communion" as the goal of ecumenical work. As the Secretaries of Christian World Communions, you bear responsibility in the task of realising full communion of faith and sacramental life among all the baptised. It is a task to which you contribute in many ways. I have said before and I affirm once more that for the Catholic Church the search for Christian unity is a pastoral priority.
It is so important that the world in which we live – divided as it is in so many ways – should see the sign of reconciliation and peace among those who believe in Christ. The more our collaboration is marked by honesty, humility and charity, the more our joint witness will really be a sign to the world of that peace and communion to which all men and women are called.
I will shortly be in Assisi together with other Christian leaders, and leaders of other religions. Our common concern will be to pray for peace. It is in prayer and only in prayer that the shape of joint action and witness in the cause of peace is to be discerned. I invite you today – you and all those you represent – to pray also in these days that the world will know and enjoy that peace which passes all understanding.
May your meeting in Rome refresh you for the challenges that lie ahead. And may the peace of Christ be with you always.
Mr President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
FOR THE THIRD time in its history, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences directs its attention towards cancer, an illness that destroys the organism of a great number of human beings and is terrifying in the diversity of its forms.
In 1948 a study week was devoted to "The Biological Problems of Cancer". In 1977 another study week researched "The Role of Non-specific Immunity in the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer". At the present meeting you have chosen the theme " Molecular Mechanisms of Carcinogenic Anti-tumor Activity".
The working group gathered this week in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences is composed of renowned scientists from around the world, who have devoted their activity to investigate, at the most fundamental level, the origins of cancer, the means to cure it and, if possible, the ways to prevent it.
You are coming from the most developed countries, which have the material means of conducting research at such a fundamental level and on such a large scale. The benefits of your work are, however, destined to all the world.
The particular feature of this working group is to combine, in the same exploration and discussion, the mechanism of action of carcinogenic and anti-tumor agents, those which cause the terrible disease and those which help to cure it. The discussions thus bear on the suffering of man, but also on his efforts to find a remedy for it.
Another striking feature of this working group is that it tries to go into the very fundamentals of the problem by investigating the molecular mechanisms of the events which are responsible for the action of the carcinogenic and anti-tumor agents.
I wish to express my gratitude to the Pontifical Academy for having chosen such an important and urgent theme. I also thank the eminent scientists who have vigorously worked during these days. May your research achieve the results necessary to defeat this terrible scourge which is cancer.
God bless you and your families.
27 October 1986
My Brothers and Sisters,
Heads and Representatives of the Christian Churches
and Ecclesial Communities and of the World Religions,
Dear Friends,
1. HAVE THE HONOUR and pleasure of welcoming all of you for our World Day of Prayer in this town of Assisi. Let me begin by thanking you from the bottom of my heart, for the openness and good will with which you have accepted my invitation to pray at Assisi.
As religious leaders you have come here not for an interreligious Conference on peace, where the emphasis would be on discussion or research for plans of action on a worldwide scale in favour of a common cause.
The coming together of so many religious leaders to pray is in itself an invitation today to the world to become aware that there exists another dimension of peace and another way of promoting it which is not a result of negotiations, political compromises or economic bargainings. It is the result of prayer, which, in the diversity of religions, expresses a relationship with a supreme power that surpasses our human capacities alone.
We come from afar, not only, for many of us, by reason of geographical distance, but above all because of our respective historical and spiritual origins.
2. The fact that we have come here does not imply any intention of seeking a religious consensus among ourselves or of negotiating our faith convictions. Neither does it mean that religions can be reconciled at the level of a common commitment in an earthly project which would surpass them all. Nor is it a concession to relativism in religious beliefs, because every human being must sincerely follow his or her upright conscience with the intention of seeking and obeying the truth.
Our meeting attests only - and this is its real significance for the people of our time - that in the great battle for peace, humanity, in its very diversity, must draw from its deepest and most vivifying sources where its conscience is formed and upon which is founded the moral action of all people.
3. I see this gathering today as a very significant sign of the commitment of all of you to the cause of peace. It is this commitment that has brought us to Assisi. The fact that we profess different creeds does not detract from the significance of this Day. On the contrary, the Churches, Ecclesial Communities and World Religions are showing that they are eager for the good of humanity.
Peace, where it exists, is always extremely fragile. It is threatened in so many ways and with such unforeseeable consequences that we must endeavour to provide it with secure foundations. Without in any way denying the need for the many human resources which maintain and strengthen peace, we are here because we are sure that, above and beyond all such measures, we need prayer - intense, humble and trusting prayer - if the world is finally to become a place of true and permanent peace.
This Day is, therefore, a day for prayer and for what goes together with prayer: silence, pilgrimage and fasting. By abstaining from food we shall become more conscious of the universal need for penance and inner transformation.
4. Religions are many and varied, and they reflect the desire of men and women down through the ages to enter into a relationship with the Absolute Being.
Prayer entails conversion of heart on our part. It means deepening our sense of the ultimate Reality. This is the very reason for our coming together in this place.
We shall go from here to our separate places of prayer. Each religion will have the time and opportunity to express itself in its own traditional rite. Then from these separate places of prayer, we will walk in silence towards the lower Square of Saint Francis. Once gathered in the Square, again each religion will be able to present its own prayer, one after the other.
Having thus prayed separately, we shall meditate in silence on our own responsibility to work for peace. We shall then declare symbolically our commitment to peace. At the end of the Day, I shall try to express what this unique celebration will have said to my heart, as a believer in Jesus Christ and the first servant of the Catholic Church.
5. I wish to express again my gratitude to you for having come to Assisi to pray. I also thank all the individuals and religious communities who have associated themselves with our prayers.
I have chosen this town of Assisi as the place for our Day of Prayer for Peace because of the particular significance of the holy man venerated here - Saint Francis - known and revered by so many throughout the world as a symbol of peace reconciliation and brotherhood. Inspired by his example, his meekness and humility let us dispose our hearts for prayer in true internal silence.
Let us make this Day an anticipation of a peaceful world.
May peace come down upon us and fill our hearts!
27 October 1986
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Jesus Christ "is our peace who has made us both one,
and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility".
I WISH TO THANK the Heads and Representatives of other Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities who have helped to prepare this Day, and who are present here either personally or through their delegates. It is significant that as the third Christian millennium approaches we Christian people have gathered here in the name of Jesus Christ to call upon the Holy Spirit, and to ask him to fill our universe with love and peace.
1. Our faith teaches us that peace is a gift of God in Jesus Christ, a gift which should express itself in prayer to him who holds the destinies of all peoples in his hands. This is why prayer is an essential part of the effort for peace. What we do today is another link in that chain of prayer for peace woven by individual Christians and by Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities, a movement which in recent years has been growing stronger in many parts of the world. Our common prayer expresses and manifests the peace reigning in our hearts, since as disciples of Christ we have been sent into the world to proclaim and to bring peace, that gift "from God, who, through Christ, reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation". As disciples of Christ we have a special obligation to work to bring his peace to the world.
We are able as Christians to gather on this occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit, who draws the followers of Jesus Christ ever more fully into that participation in the life of the Father and the Son, which is the communion of the Church. The Church is herself called to be the effective sign and means of reconciliation and peace for the human family. Despite the serious issues which still divide us, our present degree of unity in Christ is nevertheless a sign to the world that Jesus Christ is truly the Prince of Peace. In ecumenical initiatives God is opening up to us new possibilities of understanding and of reconciliation, that we may be better instruments of his peace. What we do here today will be less than complete if we go away without a deeper resolution to commit ourselves to continuing the search for full unity and to overcoming the serious divisions which remain. This resolution applies to us as individuals and as communities.
2. Our prayer here in Assisi should include repentance for our failures as Christians to carry out the mission of peace and reconciliation that we have received from Christ and which we have not yet fully accomplished. We pray for the conversion of our hearts and the renewal of our minds, that we may be true peacemakers, bearing a common witness to him whose kingdom is "a kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace".
Yes, Jesus Christ is our peace, and he must remain always before our eyes. He is the Crucified and Risen One, the One who greeted his disciples with what has become our common Christian greeting: "Peace be with you". And "when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side".
We must not forget this significant gesture of the Risen Christ. It helps us to understand the way in which we can be peacemakers. For the Risen Lord appeared to his disciples in his glorious state but still bearing the marks of his crucifixio.
In today’s world, scarred by the wounds of warfare and division, indeed in a sense crucified, this action of Christ gives us hope and strength. We cannot avoid the harsh realities that mark our existence as a result of sin. But the presence of the Risen Christ in our midst with the marks of crucifixion upon his glorified Body assures us that, through him and in him, this war-torn world can be transformed. We must follow the Spirit of Christ, who sustains us and leads us to heal the world’s wounds with the love of Christ that dwells in our hearts.
3. It is this same Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of truth, whom we ask today to enable us to discern the ways of mutual understanding and forgiveness. But prayer for peace must be followed by appropriate action for peace. It must make our minds more keenly aware, for instance, of those issues of justice which are inseparable from the achievement of peace and which lay claim to our active involvement. It must make us willing to think and act with the humility and love that foster peace. It must make us grow in respect for one another as human beings, as Churches and Ecclesial Communities, ready to live together in this world with people of other religions, with all people of good will.
The way of peace passes in the last analysis through love. Let us implore the Holy Spirit, who is the love of the Father and the Son, to take possession of us with all his power, to enlighten our minds and to fill our hearts with his love.
27 October 1986
My Brothers and Sisters,
Heads and Representatives of the Christian Churches
and Ecclesial Communities and of the World Religions,
Dear Friends,
1. IN CONCLUDING this World Day of Prayer for Peace, to which you have come from many parts of the world, kindly accepting my invitation, I would like now to express my feelings, as a brother and friend, but also as a believer in Jesus Christ, and, in the Catholic Church, the first witness of faith in him.
In relation to the last prayer, the Christian one, in the series we have all heard, I profess here anew my conviction, shared by all Christians, that in Jesus Christ, as Saviour of all, true peace is to be found, "peace to those who are far off and peace to those who are near". His birth was greeted by the angels’ song: "Glory to God in the highest and peace among men with whom he is pleased". He preached love among all, even among foes, proclaimed blessed those who work for peace and through his Death and Resurrection he brought about reconciliation between heaven and earth. To use an expression of Paul the Apostle: "He is our peace".
2. It is, in fact, my faith conviction which has made me turn to you, representatives of the Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities and World Religions, in deep love and respect.
With the other Christians we share many convictions and, particularly, in what concerns peace.
Speeches 1986 - Friday, 26 September 1986