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

ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER PAUL VI
TO HIS HIGHNESS MALIETOA TANUMAFILI II

West Samoa
Monday, 30 November 1970

Your Highness,

We are happy express Our to reply to your so gracious greeting, and to best wishes to Your Highness and to all the authorities of the Island.

We are truly happy to have been able to have this meeting with you and thank God for it!

Our wish in undertaking this long journey is to bring you the witness of Our fatherly affection and to express Our desire for your peace and well-being. We greet all who have come here: men and women, the young and the old.

We greet especially Our brothers in the faith, the sons and daughters of the Catholic Church. If you are so pleased to see the Pope, rest assured that We too are very happy. The Lord permits Us to become for a few hours a true missionary - as was Saint Peter whose lowly successor We are; Our office as father of all the faithful demands this of Us. May this meeting strengthen your faith and increase your love, the sign by which the true disciples of Jesus Christ are recognized.

May God bless you all. Samoa e fa’amalo le fa’aaloalo.