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APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO IRELAND
ADDRESS OF THE HOLY
FATHER JOHN PAUL II
AT THE ARRIVAL AT GALWAY
Galway
Sunday, 30 September 1979
I thank the Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and the esteemed Mayor of the
City of Galway for this warm welcome. It is a special pleasure for me to be able
to come West today across the width of Ireland to beautiful Galway Bay.
To you, dear Brother, pastor of this Western See which in Saint Patrick's
time was "beyond the confines of the inhabited earth", but which now is at the
meeting place of Europe and the Americas—to you and to your priests, religious
and laity I extend a word of special greeting. It honours your Diocese and your
City that you invited me to meet with representatives of all the youth of
Ireland. Among you I shall meet the future of Ireland, those who will carry the
torch of the Christian faith into the twenty-first century.
On this first visit of the Vicar of Christ on earth to the people of the West
of Ireland, I wish to ask your prayerful support for my universal mission as
Bishop of Rome. I count in a special way on your daily prayers for me in your
families, when parents and children together invoke the help of the Lord Jesus
and of his Mother Mary.
May God bless this City and its inhabitants, and grant his strength to the
weak and the sick, his courage to those who struggle, and his peace and joy to
all.
©
Copyright 1979 - Libreria
Editrice Vaticana
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