ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER PAUL VI
TO THE AMBASSADOR OF THE JAPAN TO THE HOLY SEE*

Monday, 3 February 1975

Mr. Ambassador,

With a nobility of sentiments and a courtesy that we great appreciate, you have just, on presenting your Letters of Credence, defined the aim you propose to pursue in the exercise of your new functions as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan. It is to promote an increasingly close and friendly understanding between the Holy See and your country, at the very moment when the Catholic Church is stressing, with increased vigour, the necessity of reconciliation and brotherhood among men.

We are happy to hear this programme. It shows the high conception you have of your office and promises well for Your Excellency's diplomatic mission. In a world in which the first and only care too often seems to be for economic growth and material progress, it is important, in fact, that the efforts of those responsible should unite to subordinate this pursuit, legitimate in a certain way, to the real happiness of persons and collectivities, that is, to the full development in them of the deepest human and spiritual values. For today our society needs not only to produce means of living, but to find again reasons for living.

During the whole of your stay in Rome, we are sure that you will feel encouraged in this path. Receive, therefore, our warm wishes and the assurance of our prayers for your responsibilities. Kindly transmit also to His Majesty Emperor Hilo Hito the expression of our gratitude for his good wishes, which we greatly appreciate, and tell him of our esteem and sympathy for the Japanese people, on whom we invoke the assistance of the Almighty God.

*ORa n.7 p.3.