ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER PAUL VI
TO THE NEW AMBASSADOR OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC
TO THE HOLY SEE*

Tuesday, 3 December 1974

Mr. Ambassador,

With deep appreciation and gratitude we listened to the respectful and devoted words that Your Excellency has just addressed to us on presenting the Letters that accredit you as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Argentine Republic to the Holy See. We warmly bid you welcome and manifest to you with deep satisfaction the great affection we feel for our beloved sons in your noble country.

Throughout its centuries-old history many deep ties have bound the Argentine Nation to the Holy See in fruitful and happy intercommunication. It was, as it were, a natural fruit of the deep-rooted Christian sense of the Argentine people, which has incorporated in its recognized values and virtues on the human, cultural and social plane the higher inspiration of transcendent values which, having their origin in God, constitute a perennial call to higher aims for the spirit and for human society itself (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 27).

Your Excellency referred in your address to our efforts in favour of truth, justice and peace in the world. Faithful to the mandate of universal love taught by Christ, we cannot help feeling solicitude for all Churches (cf 2 Cor 11, 28), even more so, for all men, whom we desire to serve in every possible way, offering them light from above to enlighten their minds, guide their consciences and strengthen their resolution in the laborious search for the true sense and ultimate destiny of reality and of humanity (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 3).

It is the same desire that has animated and animates the Church in Argentina in its attempt to instil always in its faithful the need of answering the innumerable calls to improvement contained in the Christian message, inviting them to hope for a new earth and heaven, without weakening thereby their "concern for cultivating this one. For here glows the body of a new human family" (Gaudium et Spes, 39).

Permanent and active awareness of this universal brotherhood in God and the consequent need for solidarity put into practice dynamically and constantly renewed among all those marching towards the same goal, may be an inspiring source of converging sentiments and generous efforts so that each and every Argentinian will consolidate peace in harmony of spirits and reconciliation in all their relations and institutions.

This is what we deeply desire for the Argentine Nation, especially at the present delicate moment. It is a wish that finds pressing echo in our spirit in view of the call coming from the aims proposed for the Holy Year.

Mr Ambassador, on beginning the high mission that has been entrusted to you by the President of your country – for whose greeting we are grateful, still remembering her recent visit – we assure you of our benevolence and support for the successful accomplishment of this mission. We also invoke abundant divine blessings on Your Excellency and on the authorities and all our beloved sons in Argentina.

*ORa n 51 p.2.