VATICAN CITY, DEC. 19, 2005 (ZENIT.org).- Here is a recently released translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Dec. 1 to a group of new ambassadors to the Holy See. The envoys presented their credentials.
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Your Excellencies,
I receive you with pleasure on the occasion of the presentation of the letters accrediting you as ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary of your respective countries: Tanzania, Nepal, Finland, Saint Lucia, El Salvador, Denmark, South Africa, Algeria, Eritrea, Togo and Andorra.
I thank you for conveying to me the courteous words of your heads of state. I should be grateful if you would reciprocate by expressing my respectful good wishes for them and for their lofty mission at the service of their countries.
Your presence also affords me an opportunity to greet the different civil and religious authorities of your nations as well as all your compatriots, with a special thought for the Catholic communities.
News of war is arriving from every part of the world. This morning I would like to make a new appeal to the leaders of nations and to all people of good will to cooperate in order to put an end to the violence that disfigures humanity and jeopardizes the growth of peoples and the hopes of numerous populations.
Without the commitment to peace by one and all, creating an atmosphere of pacification and a spirit of reconciliation in all social milieus beginning with the family, it will not be possible to advance on the path of a peaceful society.
In this perspective, for an increasingly more harmonious development of peoples, it is important to pay special attention to youth. Families and the different educational structures must be given the means to form and educate young people and to transmit to them the essential spiritual, moral and social values, thus preparing them for a better future and a true awareness of their role in society and the attitudes they must acquire to serve the common good and be attentive to everyone.
In the long term, this will be one of the essential ways to extricate the world from the spiral of violence.
For her part, the Catholic Church, present on all the continents, never ceases to make her own contribution by developing many educational institutions and by shaping the religious sense of individuals: This cannot but increase in each one the sense of brotherhood and solidarity.
I am aware of the importance you give to this matter in your role as diplomats, one of whose essential tasks is to encourage dialogue and negotiation as well as the increased well-being of peoples.
I also express my hope that all men and women of our time will be committed to furthering peace and reconciliation on all the continents, for it is not enough to opt for peace in order to achieve it; in addition, at the practical level and in all the social categories, no effort must be spared to bring about peace.
At the end of our meeting, I offer you my best wishes for your new mission, as I invoke an abundance of divine benefits upon you, your families, your collaborators and your countries.
[Translation of the French distributed by the Holy See]
