To the Bishops of Argentina in Buenos Aires (12 June 1982)

On Saturday, 12 June 1982, the Holy Father addressed the Bishops of Argentina in Buenos Aires. In his speech, the Pope spoke on a true and lasting peace as the fruit of a successful integration of patriotism and universality.

True and lasting peace must be the mature fruit of a

Dear Cardinals and dear brothers in the Episcopate,

1. I am sure that you will be able to read in my spirit feelings that words cannot adequately express: first of all, how consoling this meeting with you on the land of Argentina is for me.

With you, whom the Holy Spirit placed as Pastors (Cf. Acts 20, 30) of the numerous particular Churches, who live their faith and hope throughout the geography of this beloved Catholic nation.

With you also, representatives of the Episcopal Conferences of other neighboring countries and of CELAM, who have come to associate with the prayer and peace purposes of your brothers in Argentina.

I greet everyone from the bottom of my heart with the words of the first Bishop of Rome: “in fraternitatis amore” ( 1 Petr. 1, 22) and “in osculo sancto” ( Ibid . 5, 14).

2. For the third time, divine Providence directs my steps toward Latin America. Here in Argentina the excitement of previous visits to the Church - Pastors and faithful - in this great sub-continent is renewed: those of Santo Domingo, Mexico and Brazil.

Although the current meeting has a very different aspect and meaning from the previous ones. At a time of anxiety and suffering for this nation and its people, I felt moved to undertake the unexpected journey. I was motivated to come by that set of reasons that I wanted to express to the sons and daughters of Argentina with the letter that I addressed to them , with so much affection and trust, on May 25. I have come because I was in a hurry to confirm with my presence the deep affection that I have for you and to share with you my desire for peace and harmony among men throughout the world.

3. While I live with you, brother bishops, in this hour of profound communion, a wonderful ecclesial image emerges in my spirit: the image of the People of God, magnificently outlined in that dense second chapter of Lumen Gentium.

In this People of God , catholicity or universality shines as one of its most admirable dimensions . In fact, it is made up of men and people spread across the entire horizon of the earth, summoned and gathered by Jesus, Head of this people, and by the Holy Spirit, who is the soul of this same people, the principle of life and cohesion.

Thus, the People of God is not limited to the necessarily narrow confines of a nation, race or culture, but extends throughout the universe. But it does not ignore or despise nations, races or cultures. Its greatness and originality lies precisely in amalgamating the most diverse people into a living, organic and dynamic unity; in such a way that neither unity suffers ruptures, nor diversity loses its essential riches.

From a meditation on the second chapter, and particularly on number thirteen of Lumen Gentium , it is possible to always glean, with renewed spiritual joy, new and fruitful teachings of the deepest theological content. Today I want to limit myself to two reflections that I believe are most appropriate to the circumstance we are experiencing.

4. The first is that, in the light of the theology of the People of God, the double condition—not opposed, but complementary—of the Christian is illuminated more clearly. Indeed, he is a member of the Church, which is a reflection and prelude to the City of God. And he is at the same time a citizen of a specific earthly homeland, from which he receives so many riches of language and culture, of tradition and history, of character and way of seeing existence, men, the world.

This type of Christian and spiritual citizenship does not exclude or destroy human citizenship. Rather, being by its nature a universal citizenship and capable of surpassing borders, this citizenship characteristic of the People of God appears all the richer the more the various faces and identities of all the peoples that compose it are present in it.

5. The second reflection, explicitly mentioned in Lumen Gentium , is of particular importance for us. The People of God, precisely because it is unity in variety, a community of diverse men and peoples—“linguarum multarum,” to put it in the words of the Pentecost liturgy—that do not lose their diversity, appears as a harbinger and figure; even more so, as the germ and vital principle of universal peace. Because the harmonious communion in diversity that occurs in the People of God provokes the desire for the same thing to happen in the universe. Even more: what happens in the People of God serves as a basis for believing the same among men.

6. In this sense, universality, an essential dimension in the People of God, is not opposed to patriotism nor does it enter into conflict with it. On the contrary, it integrates it, reinforcing the values ​​it has; above all, love for one's own country, taken, if necessary, to the point of sacrifice; but at the same time opening the patriotism of each one to the patriotism of the others, so that they intercommunicate and enrich each other.

True and lasting peace must be the mature fruit of a successful integration of patriotism and universality .

7. These truths, even barely outlined, already shed new light also on the mission of the bishops.

Indeed, by virtue of the spiritual function that he exercises before the People of God—a concrete People of God, incarnated in a certain sector of humanity—each bishop is, by vocation and charisma, a witness of catholicity , be it at the diocesan level, national or universal; but he is, at the same time, a witness of what we call patriotism , understood here as belonging to a certain people, with its own spiritual and cultural riches. From this derive the two dimensions of the episcopal mission: that of service to the particular - to his diocese and, by extension, to the local Church of his country -, and the openness to the Catholic , to the universal , at a continental or world.

Placed by the Holy Spirit at this point of convergence of both dimensions, the bishop has the obligation and the privilege, the joy and the cross of being a promoter of the inalienable identity of the diverse realities that make up his people; without ceasing to lead them to that unity without which the People of God does not exist. In this way he helps these different realities to be enriched in contact, even more so, in mutual interaction.

8. And precisely for this reason, the bishop's mission always has an aspect that I do not have to hide.

It is easy and can be comfortable at times, to leave various things abandoned to their dispersion. It is easy, by placing ourselves at the other extreme, to forcibly reduce diversity to a monolithic and indiscriminate uniformity. It is difficult, however, to build unity while preserving, or even better, promoting the right variety. It is about knowing how to harmonize legitimate values ​​of the various components of the unit, overcoming the natural resistances that frequently arise from each one.

Therefore, being a bishop will always mean being the architect of harmony, peace and reconciliation.

Hence we can listen with such benefit to the text of the second Letter to the Corinthians, in which Saint Paul, trying to illuminate the full breadth of the apostolic vocation, points out, among other aspects, the following: “God. . . He entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation. . . the word of reconciliation” ( 2 Cor . 5, 18 et 19).

Not by chance but certainly with a precise intention, Saint Paul refers to the word of reconciliation , that is, announcement, exhortation, denunciation, command, which each Apostle and successor of the Apostles must associate with a service of reconciliation , that is work, concrete steps, effort. Both things are necessary and indispensable: the word is completed with the ministry.

9. Perhaps it is not superfluous, in this regard, to underline a fundamental element.

It is in the heart of the Church, a community of believers, where the bishop primarily shows himself as a reconciler; continually striving, with his word and his ministry, to make and remake peace and communion, unfortunately always threatened. Not to say cracked because of the “human fragilitas”, even among followers of Jesus Christ and brothers in Him.

But let us never forget: the Church must be forma mundi , also in the plan of peace and reconciliation. For this reason, a Pastor of the Church cannot silence the verbum reconciliationis , nor dispense with the ministerium reconciliationis also for the world, in which fractures and divisions, hatred and discord constantly break unity and peace. He will not do it with the instruments of politics, but with the humble and convincing word of the Gospel.

10. Successor of the Apostle Peter, your elder brother and servant of unity, why not proclaim before you that, in the face of the sad events in the South Atlantic, I also wanted to become, with you, herald and minister of reconciliation ?

I knew well that by directing my steps towards Great Britain - in the exercise of a strictly pastoral mission, which was not only the Pope's, but the entire Church - someone could perhaps interpret such mission in a political key, diverting it from its pure evangelical meaning. However, I judged that fidelity to my own ministry required me not to stop at possible inaccurate interpretations, but to comply with the mandate to meekly and firmly proclaim the “verbum reconciliationis.”

It is true that beforehand I wanted to meet repeatedly with authorized representatives of the Episcopate of Argentina and Great Britain, to request their opinion and advice on a matter of such importance for the interested nations and for the Churches that are found in them.

Then I wanted to celebrate a solemn Eucharist in St. Peter's Basilica with some Pastors from the countries involved in the conflict. The moving testimony of communion, which, even in the midst of the struggle between their countries of origin, these Pastors gave “in uno calice et in uno pane”, was further enriched by the common Declaration that they signed after the Mass.

And I do not need to comment here on the aforementioned letter signed with my own hand that, as Saint Paul is accustomed to do, I wrote “to the dear sons and daughters of the Argentine nation.” It was a word that came from the heart, in an hour of suffering for your people, in order to announce my ardent desire to come and meet you.

Finally, I am very happy that your brother bishops of Great Britain, during my trip to those towns, have had the noble and delicate gesture of writing to you, to seal even more strongly this “vinculum pacis” between Pastors. May God grant that the “vinculum pacis” always reaches your people and nations.

In all these gestures, how can we not see clear expressions of the “verbum reconciliationis” united with the “ministerium reconciliationis”?

11. Today, dear brothers, the solemnity of Corpus Christi finds us gathered in the unity that springs from communion in the one Lord and in the same Bread.

I come to join my voice and supplication to yours. As I did in Great Britain, I come to pray for those who fell in the conflict, to bring comfort and consolation to so many families grieving the death of loved ones. But above all, I come to pray with you and your faithful so that the current conflict finds a peaceful and stable solution, with respect for justice and the dignity of the affected peoples.

And since it is a task of the Bishop of Rome to promote the unity of brothers, I would like to confirm you in your own mission as reconcilers. Proclaiming that such a mission is very great and urgent, although difficult and expensive. At the same time, I beg you to remain with me in the determined fulfillment of such a task, thus facilitating mine.

12. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your welcome, for all your efforts and sufferings. And let us together ask the Holy Spirit, author of genuine unity, to give us his grace and perseverance in the search for love and peace in Argentine society.

But not only in her. At this time when all of Latin America is showing greater cohesion, in which it is eagerly seeking its deepest identity and proper character, the reconciling presence of the Church is important, so that a continent that has a “real Catholic substratum” ( Puebla , 412), preserve the ideal inspirations that have shaped it.

In the midst of the hopes and dangers that may loom on the horizon, and in view of the latent tensions that emerge from time to time, it is necessary to offer a service of pacification in the name of mutual faith and understanding, so that religious riches and spiritual foundations, true foundations of unity, are much stronger than any seed of disunity.

13. May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, comfort and encourage you in her.

At the feet of this sweet Mother we found ourselves yesterday in her sanctuary of Luján, Marian heart of Argentina. Together we will pray for peace. Not only for that peace that consists in the silence of weapons, but also for that, full, which is the attribute of hearts reconciled and free of resentments.

From now on I pray to Santa María de los Buenos Aires to grant each and every one of the Argentine bishops the grace to serve Jesus and his Church with devotion full of interior joy.

With this invocation, I give you, dear brothers, my particular Apostolic Blessing. I ask you to join me, to extend that blessing to every Argentine home, especially to those where there are tears born of war. May the Lord give you comfort and peace. 

Copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana