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

Friday, 4 October 1974 

 

Mr. Ambassador,

 

We deeply appreciate the delicate and profound words Your Excellency has just uttered, at the moment when you are inaugurating your functions as Ambassador of the Madagascan Republic to the Holy See.

Presenting the respects of the Government that has designated you for this high office, you wished to echo the whole Madagascan people, stressing its gratitude for the fruitful contribution of the Church in the development of its ancestral values and its social promotion. And you associated in the same merit missionaries and Madagascan Christians, who have now their native pastors.

This trust deeply moves us, and we have the firm hope that it will continue to permit, not only friendly relations, but a fruitful collaboration between the Church and the civil leaders you represent. The spiritual quality of men and their relations is at stake in the first place. You have rightly shown the value that your compatriots attach to God and the soul; it is to this good that the Church is mainly directed. But the disinterested love that animates the latter, especially 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 there. We know with what zeal our Brothers and Sons of Madagascar are exerting themselves. We encourage them and express fervent wishes for the whole of the Madagascan people and its rulers, praying to God to bless them and assist them in the task, a hard and hopeful one, which they are taking over today, both on the national and the international plane.

Mr. Ambassador, while representing your Government here, you will witness the efforts of the Holy See for the holiness and unity of the universal Church, and for the peace of mankind. To you particularly, we offer our cordial wishes as you embark upon your mission.


*ORa n.42 p.3.

 


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