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ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE PAUL VI
TO THE AMBASSADOR OF HONDURAS TO THE HOLY SEE
*

Thursday, 17 February 1977

 

Mr. Ambassador,

We are very happy to receive you today, for the presentation of the Letters that accredit you as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Honduras to the Holy See.

We thank you for the respectful greeting that you transmitted to us from the President of the Republic, as well as for the kind words with which Your Excellency expressed the Christian sentiments of the Hondurans, whose love for the Church and devotion to the Pope we well know and appreciate. On our side it is our sincere wish that the Catholic faith, embraced right from the discovery of America, will always be a living force that will promote the common life and the progress of the nation.

Your Excellency has just referred to the deep repercussions of our appeals for love and peace. They have no other aim than to follow in the footsteps of Christ, the Prince of peace and the model of supreme charity, in whom the whole of mankind has been made the reconciled family of God's sons.

These are the aims to which we constantly invite all men, convinced that in this way we serve the real cause of the growing value of the human person. To do so, we rely on the determined will of so many persons of upright conscience and, above all, on the generous collaboration of Christians, sensitive to the commandment of universal love bequeathed by Jesus Christ, since man “cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself” (Gaudium et Spes, 24).

The Church has accepted with renewed enthusiasm this demanding commandment. For this reason she sees herself engaged in an evangelizing action, of social advancement and of defence of human rights, to offer the message of salvation and be at the same time a ferment contributing to the building-up of a society that is increasingly more dignified, more human and more fraternally united.

The Church in Honduras cooperates actively in this high task, faithful to her mission and to the desire to serve through her many social institutions. We trust that these activities and the persons who carry them out will always meet in the country with the respect and consideration they rightly deserve.

Mr. Ambassador we wish finally to assure you of our benevolence and support for the happy and fruitful development of the high mission that is beginning now, while asking you at the same time to convey our best wishes to the authorities that entrusted it to you and to our beloved Honduran sons, for whose prosperity and peace we raise fervent and constant prayers to the Almighty.


*ORa n.9 p.5.

 



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