ADDRESS OF POPE PAUL VI
TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF MALTA*

Saturday, 28 November 1964

Mister Prime Minister,

We are happy to receive your visit, to greet you, and to greet in your person the beloved Maltese Nation with its more than two-thousand-year history, distinguished by unbroken and most glorious Catholic traditions. Malta received the Christian message from the hands of the Apostle Saint Paul himself, and that message she has jealously guarded down through the centuries, and amid the most various experiences and vicissitudes.

Your visit gives Us a welcome occasion to renew Our prayerful good wishes to Malta, on her recent inscription on the roll of independent Nations. We have followed with affectionate concern the preparation and celebration of that historic event; and it was with particular pleasure that We noted that the negotiations were marked by reconfirmation of that faithfulness to its profoundly Catholic character, both in private and in public life, which is the noble heritage of the Maltese people.

With God’s assistance and blessings, may Malta continue upon this new path in unswerving fidelity to her religious traditions, in peace, in security, in truly constructive industriousness in finding solutions for the various problems which arise, even in regard to a flourishing development in the material and temporal order. In this, may she also be able to count upon the aid and collaboration of friendly Nations. 

May this prayer be strengthened by Our Apostolic Blessing, which from Our heart We bestow upon you, Mister Prime Minister, upon your family, the distinguished members of your retinue, the civil authorities and all the beloved people of Malta.

*AAS 56 (1964), p.1019.

Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, vol. II, p.679-680.

L' Osservatore Romano 29.11.1964 p.1.