APOSTOLIC PILGRIMAGE
OF HIS HOLINESS PAUL VI
TO WEST ASIA, OCEANIA AND AUSTRALIA

DEPARTURE CEREMONY

ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER PAUL VI

Manila, Philippines
Sunday, 29 November 1970

This brief stay in the Philippines has been a very great joy for Us. We have lived through these days surrounded by the affection and the inexhaustible kindness of the Filipino people. It has been Our good fortune to experience their spirit of hospitality and the fervor of their religious faith, and also to catch a glimpse of their dynamism. We bid them good-bye with emotion and an inexpressible gratitude.

Our thanks go to all those who have made this visit possible. First of all to His Excellency the President of the Republic, who has had the kindness to come to meet Us together with the members of his Government. Then also to the civic authorities of the city of Manila, who have prepared and organized Our stay remarkably well. We thank Cardinal Santos, Archbishop of Manila, and the episcopate of the Philippines, whose fraternal affection has made Our being among them so pleasant.

We shall never forget the country of the Philippines. We shall pray for it. May God sustain all those who hold authority in the land, both in the civil and the religious spheres, to assure this worthy people the benefits of civilization and of economic and social progress, as well as the graces of a clearsighted and generous Christian life. May they all, each in the sphere of his proper competence and yet in close collaboration for the common good, remain full of courage and hope in spite of the dimensions of their task.

We are continuing Our journey, comforted by this first stage which will ever remain imprinted on Our memory. The bond of love which links Rome-the mother and head and still more the friend and servant of al1 the Churches-to the Churches of Asia has been wonderfully reinforced. We see in this a pledge of the divine blessing upon Our spiritual and apostolic mission. May God bless the Philippines. May his blessing extend to all those who live in this immense archipelago, to the most farflung of its islands.

Nawla’y manatili sa inyo ang Pag-ibig at awang Diyos!
May the mercy and love of God be always with you!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!
Long live the Philippines!