ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER PAUL VI
TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
«AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY»

Monday, 2 February 1976

Dear friends,

This morning we willingly greet the representatives of American Express. We know that your European visit can have an effect on travel and tourism to this continent and in particular to Italy, to Rome and to the Vatican. Moreover, your activities can have a significant effect on the lives of individual people and on their happiness and well-being. For this reason we do not hesitate to call to your attention the contribution of fraternal service that you can offer to those people who place their trust in your agency and in you personally. The professional services that you render in this spirit can indeed help to build up what we like to call “the civilization of love” -a well-ordered world in which people care about each other.

Your own experience will help you to discover many ways of furnishing this fraternal service. On our part we would like to mention one example. It is the case of ordinary people who have looked forward for years to the time when they could make a religious pilgrimage. During the visit itself, they sometimes find that they are unable to fulfill the reason why they came. Many of these people have recounted for us the disappointment they experienced in having only a fleeting moment in Saint Peter’s, or in not being able to attend a Wednesday Papal Audience. And so our own experience confirms the fact that you can perform an excellent work by giving delicate attention to the spiritual and religious requirements of the people whom you serve.

By being sensitive, therefore, to these and other needs, you can make a fitting contribution to harmony and happiness. And we are convinced that, in so doing, you will yourselves find joy. On all of you and on your families we invoke the blessings of God’s love.