ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER PAUL VI
TO THE AMBASSADOR OF CUBA*

Thursday, 25 March 1976

Mr. Ambassador,

We heartily bid Your Excellency welcome on the occasion of the presentation of the Letters which accredit you as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Cuba to the Holy See. We wish to assure you here and now that, much as your predecessor, Dr Luis Amado Blanco, whom Your Excellency recalled, you can rely on our benevolence and support in the accomplishment of your high mission.

Your Excellency referred to the necessity of making efforts to attain peace, and human justice and brotherhood. These are ideals that have always met with a deep echo in the heart of the Church, which feels itself in solidarity with mankind and its history at every moment. Consequently the Church and we ourself let no propitious opportunity pass to stimulate men and peoples to unite in this noble task, inviting them to better adapt the world to man’s superior dignity, to aim at a more deeply rooted universal brotherhood and to meet the urgent necessities of our times (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 91).

In the carrying out of this task, the Church and the Holy See feel impelled not only by reasons of human solidarity but also by the duty of faithfulness to their specific mission, which is of a religious and moral character. For the Gospel, of which the Church is the bearer and proclaimer everywhere and at all times does not reject the natural values concerning social relations, on the contrary it adopts them and purifies them, diffusing a transcendent light on the nature of the relations between men, seen as sons of the same Father and, therefore, united among themselves, in a special way, by the bond of brotherhood.

In the same way, impelled by a view of man in the light of God, the Church proclaims the innate dignity of the human person and defends consistently his universal and inviolable rights.

The action of the Church and of the Holy See finds in Cuba a field prepared by a long tradition of a civilization of markedly Christian character. It cannot, therefore, appeal alien to the soul and the deep reality of the Cuban people, nor is it destined to diminish, but on the contrary to strengthen and emphasize everything that belongs to the history of this people, to its noble and rich culture, in a word, to that complex of spiritual and moral values that go to make up its precious national heritage. On this solid foundation can be based the effort aimed at new progress in the cultural, economic and social field, which we so wholeheartedly desire for a nation that continues to be so dear to us and that we esteem so much.

We are sure that our Cuban sons, guided by their Pastors, so greatly respected and always faithful to their Christian and human vocation, will contribute with all their strength to the prosperity of their country.

Mr. Ambassador, assuring you once more of our benevolence and wishing you success in the mission you are now beginning, we request you to transmit our greetings and gratitude to H.E. the President of Cuba for the respectful wishes he expressed, to the Authorities and to the whole beloved and noble Cuban people, on whom we constantly invoke the aid of the Almighty.

*ORa n.15 p.2.