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

ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER PAUL VI
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE
ADMINISTRATION OF NORTH SYDNEY

Sydney, Australia
Wednesday, 2 December 1970

Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure for Us to meet here those in charge of the administration of North Sydney. We offer them Our respectful greetings, together with Our thanks for their welcome and Our good wishes for their welfare.

One of the distinguishing marks of your nation is its attachment to democratic liberty. We are glad to remark on it in order to felicitate you for it. Among you this liberty is able to unfold because there is another quality which favours it, namely, civic spirit. It is thanks to such values that a healthy and stable society can develop.

The field of competence of public authority tends today to extend continually because of the complexity of services required by modern life; it still has, however, for its aim to satisfy the demands of the common good. It must take into account, within a harmonious balance, the demands of life in society as well as of the rights of each individual, and at the same time respect the lawful liberties of each person-particularly his right to honour God according to the proper rule of his conscience. It is in the accomplishment of this delicate task that you are engaged with competence and zeal. We pray God to assist you with his grace.

Very willingly do We call down upon you and your families, your staff and all under your administration abundant blessings from the Almighty.