ADDRESS OF PAUL VI
TO THE FIRST AMBASSADOR OF THE
REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA TO THE HOLY SEE*

Monday, 31 May 1965

Mister Ambassador,

We thank you from Our heart for your kind address, and We welcome you as the first Ambassador of the Republic of Zambia to this Holy See.

You undertake your important mission as the first diplomatic representative of your newly-independent Nation here, and We wish you God’s richest blessings and graces in the performance of your duties. On Our part, Your Excellency may rest assured that We shall ever strive to facilitate the fulfilment of that office, and shall always be available to you when the circumstances require it.

Through your good offices, We send heartfelt greetings to His Excellency the President of the Republic, who recently honoured Us with his visit; to the members of the Government; and to all the dearly beloved people of Zambia, whom We came to know, to respect, and to cherish during Our personal visit to their land.

We take this occasion to express once again Our best wishes for Africa as that great continent enters into liberty and independence; and to repeat Our assurance that the Catholic Church, as she has in the past, will ever continue to favour the progress and development of Africa, with no other purpose than to serve.

We assure Your Excellency and your people that the Catholic Church will never falter in her efforts to further the moral, social and material progress of the Republic of Zambia; and We willingly invoke upon you, upon the President and his family, the Government and people of Zambia, the choice blessings of Almighty God.

*AAS 57 (1965), p.600.

Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, vol. III, p.314.

L'Osservatore Romano 1.6.1965, p.2.