ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS PAUL VI
TO THE AMBASSADOR OF THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI
TO THE HOLY SEE*

Monday, 12 May 1975

Mr. Ambassador,

We deeply appreciate these delicate words and the deep sentiments to which they testify, at the moment when Your Excellency is inaugurating your functions as Ambassador of the Republic of Haiti to the Holy See.

You recalled the close end longstanding ties that unite the Haitian people with the Catholic Church and paid tribute to the spiritual work carried out by the latter. You took pleasure in stressing how you yourself benefited from it. Such trust touches us deeply, and we have the firm hope that it will continue to permit, not just polite relations, but also a fruitful collaboration between the Church and the civil lenders that you represent, according to the specific competence on each side.

What is at stake in the first place is the spiritual quality of men and their relationships. A real religious sentiment animates your fellow-countrymen: the Church has no other aim than to develop it in truth. But the disinterested love that inspires her, particularly in the service of the poorest, is also a token of the precious contribution That Christians can always make to the construction of the State, in order that prosperity, peace, justice and all the conditions of a life worthy of man may reign, for the benefit of everyone, We know with what zeal our Brothers and Sons of Haiti are exerting themselves in older to do so and we encourage them in this.

As for you, Mr Ambassador, receive our fervent wishes and the assurance of our prayers for the happy accomplishment of your mission. Please transmit also to the President of the Republic of Haiti the expression of our gratitude for his good wishes, which you conveyed to us, and tell him of our sympathy and affection for the Haitian People, on whom we invoke God’s Blessing.