ADDRESS

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.

© Copyright 1986 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana