APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO GENEVA
ON THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE
 INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION (10 JUNE 1969)

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS PAUL VI
TO THE STAFF OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION*

Tuesday, 10 June 1969

Gentlemen, members of the personnel of the International Labour Bureau,

Our visit to your Organization would have seemed incomplete if We had not be able to have a short visit with you also.

It is thanks to you that the International Labour Bureau can fulfil its important task of collecting, distributing and publishing studies and information, of offering assistance to those governments which desire it, of promoting research, supervising the application of conventions and so on. An immense field of activity, this, one in which you are the good artisans, performing a frequently obscure job, ignored by many, and in any case far from being appreciated, in most cases, as much as it would deserve.

It seems to Us that the honour and grandeur of your task is the idea which orientates and dominates it, and which can be summed up in one word: service. You are the faithful and active servants of the common good of mankind.

How many virtues that presupposes! First of all, an irreproachable professional awareness, a high sense of duty; then, perfect honesty, both intellectual and moral, and total lack of self-interest; all of this in daily perseverance and faithfulness. In truth, it is no small thing to serve, as you do, one of the noblest causes which can be proposed to human activity.

Allow Us to felicitate you on this service, and to tell you how much the Church appreciates and rejoices over the service you render to all mankind.

With all Our heart We invoke upon you, upon your families and your work, an abundance of divine blessings.

*ORa n. 25 p.2.