ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS PAUL VI
TO PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL EXECUTIVE CONCIL
AND SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
OF THE SOCIALIST FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

Thursday, 17 November 1977

Your Excellency,

We are happy to express to you the satisfaction we feel on receiving you today and to wish you, Mrs Minic and all the eminent personalities who accompany you, a hearty welcome.

The Holy See follows with interest and appreciates the action that is being carried out by Yugoslavia to arrive at better cooperation in the international field. Your country, in particular, is studying, attentively the problems that concern peace, disarmament, respect for minorities, and the support that is due to the developing countries. At present Yugoslavia is participating very actively in the meeting which is taking place in Belgrade, as a continuation of the Conference on security and cooperation in Europe.

On its part, the Holy See wishes to make its contribution, according to its specific means, to the advancement of all men and all peoples. The universality of its mission and its action have given it an experience that is certainly privileged in the field of meeting and collaborating with the most different peoples. From this historical experience, the Church has drawn the deep conviction that orderly and fruitful cooperation among the various human communities, within a State as well as on the international plane, is possible only when the dignity of all the members is really recognized as the basis and as the expression of full respect for the fundamental rights of every man.

You know how much we desired and encouraged the development of relations between the Holy See and the Yugoslav Government. We are happy to see that they have yielded good results and we hope, for the advantage of both parties, that they will yield even more considerable ones in the future. The Holy See will be able to contribute more effectively to the fulfilment of this hope if it can rely fully, in Yugoslavia, on the concrete conditions that allow the Church, as a whole as well as each of its communities, even the most outlying ones, to put at the service of persons as well as of society the riches of the real values of which she is the bearer.

We are confident, and we are certain that Your Excellency shares our hope, that goodwill will never be lacking to overcome any possible difficulties, in order to guarantee each person a peace and a freedom of spirit which will not fail to have repercussions on the whole of the civil community.

Once more, Your Excellency, we express to you our cordial wishes and we ask you to convey to Mr. President of the Republic, assuring him of the pleasant memory we have of his visit, our greetings and our fervent wishes in God for the prosperity of all the people of Yugoslavia.

*ORa n.49 p.12.