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ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER PAUL VI
TO THE AMBASSADOR OF THE ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT TO THE HOLY SEE
*

Thursday, 13 February 1975

 

Mr. Ambassador,

We thank Your Excellency for the trusting words you have just expressed to us, on presenting your Letters of Credence. We do not doubt, in fact, that your mission as Ambassador will contribute actively to drawing closer the bonds between the Holy See and your country, and we welcome you heartily. Our thought turns to President Mohamed Anouar El Sadat. Kindly convey to him our respectful wishes.

Receiving you here, Mr. Ambassador, it is also the whole people of the Arab Republic of Egypt that we look upon with sympathy, listening to their aspirations to a just and lasting peace. We have suffered, and are still suffering, because of the difficulties that have accumulated in the Middle East for so many years, with the sorrows and acts of violence that accompany them. Perhaps the way is open today to a reasonable solution of the conflicts? With you, We are watching incessantly for the dawn of peace, which would bring happiness and prosperity to these regions.

We also wish the Egyptian people success in developing the cultural and spiritual values that are the glory of its very long history. Your Excellency knows to what extent our Catholic sons are ready to continue their collaboration in this field, with the means at their disposal, happy to make their specific contribution to the good of the whole country.

And just as the Holy See hopes that Egypt will be able to solve its problems successfully, in the same way it is anxious to see the establishment among all nations of an atmosphere of distension, dialogue and, let us say, cooperation, in pursuit of the real progress of humanity, which has so many essential questions to settle for its development. As long as peace remains precarious in this Mediterranean basin which has been for so long a crucible of civilization and religious vitality, it will remain precarious for the whole world. But if it is successfully established, it will be a blessing for everyone. Who would not want this? Personally, we will leave no stone unturned in order to contribute to it.

We pray to Almighty God to grant our prayer and our wishes, and to spread his fruitful blessings over your country and its rulers.


*ORa n.9 p.5.

 



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