LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS PAUL VI
TO H.E. U THANT, SECRETARY-GENERAL
OF TEH UNITED NATIONS ON THE OCCASION OF THE MEETING IN MILAN
OF THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME*

We have learned that the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Program is to meet in Milan shortly to hold its second session. On this occasion we are happy to this message of respectful good wishes and encouragement.

Pursuing the work previously financed and administered by the enlarged technical assistance programme and the special fund of the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme is carrying out its initiatives in order to speed up the economic and social development of least developed countries. How can we f ail to rejoice when competent, responsible men meet to pool the resources made available to them by the international community of nations in order to promote the physical, intellectual and spiritual progress of the most needy of its members?

It is man in his fullest and most harmonious capacity that development seeks to produce, thus a triple longing must be assuaged white ever contending with the growth of daily and most urgent difficulties. The United Nations Development Programme has an increasingly clear view of this physical, intellectual and spiritual need, and the will to remedy it. But for this to be achieved, the whole world must be aware that misery is not only an unbearable evil for its victim but that this must also be so for each and every man worthy of the name. To permit man to survive is not enough, but to give him the means to live fully, as a person capable of establishing a family, and giving a satisfactory education to his children: such are the tasks calling for the disinterested aid of all men of good will, beyond any differences of nationality, race, culture or religion. Thus, man of today must increasingly convince himself that his own existence is involved and that temporary emergency help will not suffice. Ail human resources must be mobilized, for it is not enough to give of one's means, one must also give of the best of oneself. The peace which the world is aspiring to will not be built on less, for as it has been truly said, "Development is the new name of peace."

These are the thoughts inspired in us by the coming meeting in Milan and which we have thought worthwhile to communicate, in our ardent desire to spare no effort to ensure, with the collaboration of all men of good will, peace in truth, justice, charity and liberty.

It is with these sentiments that we invoke for Your Excellency, for Mr. Paul G. Hoffman, Director of the United Nations Development Programme and for all who participate in this session, the abundance of divine blessings.

*Paths to Peace p.271-272.