Good afternoon to all of you, especially to the representatives.

You can be seated, but I will stand.

I just came very briefly to greet all of you and to welcome you to Rome, to the Vatican, to Saint Peter’s Basilica, and to join you very briefly in this Jubilee pilgrimage during this Holy Year, a year which inspires us all and invites us all to look for hope, but also to be signs of hope.

How important it is that each and every baptized person feel himself or herself to be called by God to be a sign of hope in the world today.

It is our faith that gives us strength.  It is our faith that enables us to see the light of Jesus Christ in our lives and to understand how important it is to live our faith.  Not only on Sundays, not only during a pilgrimage, but each and every day so that we will be filled with the hope that only Jesus Christ can give us and that all of us together will continue to walk united as brothers and sisters to praise our God; to recognize that everything we have and everything we are is a gift from God, and to place those gifts at the service of others.

I am very happy to be able to greet you all for just a very brief moment this afternoon, but to say to each and every one of you: Thank you for living your life, your faith in Jesus Christ.

You are already very well accompanied by their Eminences, Cardinal Turkson, Cardinal Arinze, as well as Archbishop Fortunatus, and all of us together, filled with the great witness that you are all giving and that the continent of Africa gives to the whole world.

We say, “Thank you, Lord Jesus, and may your name be praised.”  God bless you all.

So I will conclude with the blessing. May the Lord be with you.  May Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. May God’s peace go with you always.