ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER PAUL VI
TO THE PILGRIMS FROM ENGLAND AND WALES

Monday, 26 October 1970

Dear sons and daughters from England and Wales,

Once again We are pleased to tell you how happy We are to have you with Us. We know that your joy is great in these days and that you are proud of your newly-canonised Martyrs. They have indeed brought honour to your people as well as to the Church.

Our thoughts are still dwelling on the splendid event of yesterday. We are grateful in a special way to the choir for the part it played in the ceremony with dignity and competence. We are particularly happy also to have had such a fine representation of the religious orders from which some of the new saints came and to have seen so many of our beloved priest sons from Great Britain.

It is Our prayer that the canonisation will be for you all a source of grace: that you will take the occasion to renew your faith and again dedicate your lives in the love of Christ and of his Church. We pray also that the inspiration of those holy Martyrs will encourage you to hold fast to the authentic values for which they died.

Through you We send Our greeting to your beloved land: into your homes and churches, into your seminaries and religious communities, into your schools, hospitals and other institutions, to all those “who love us in the faith” (Tit. 3, 15).

To all of you goes Our special Apostolic Blessing.