Dear Motorists,

I willingly complied with the desire expressed to me by the Italian Motorist Sports Commission to address from this window a blessing word of greeting and good wishes to you, racing-car drivers and teams. You are about to leave from this inspiring Square of St Peter's to take part in the forty-seventh Montecarlo Rally, in competition with other teams, which are starting out at the same time from various European capitals, including the dear city of Warsaw, always loved.

I thank you heartily for this significant presence, dear athletes, who make sport a purpose of style and of life, as well as a legitimate motive of prestige and honourable victories. At the same time, I would like to exhort you to see to it that these sports competitions are marked not only by the virtues of loyalty and integrity, but also by a constant effort for the truer and more lasting achievements, the victories of the spirit. These must always have first place in the scale of human values, whether on the plane of sport, or on the social and civil planes.

May good fortune smile on you, beloved brothers, and may my special propitiating blessing, which I now impart to you, to your teammates and to all the organizers of this popular event, accompany you as a token and auspice of continual assistance and divine protection.

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