To the President and Authorities of the Republic (30 June 1980)
ShareOn Monday, 30 June 1980, the Holy Father addressed the President and Authorities in Brasilia, speaking of “the essential reforms for the safeguarding and promotion of values without which no society worthy of the name can prosper.”
Mr. president:
1. These are my first words to express my deep gratitude to your Excellency. And I want to do it with one of the first expressions that I have learned in my very recent study of the Portuguese language and that has a particular meaning for me: "Muito obligado!" (thank you so much).
Thank you very much for the generous availability affirmed and demonstrated since Your Excellency learned of my intention to accede to the desire of my brother bishops of Brazil for me to visit this country.
Thank you very much for the kind presence of Your Excellency at the airport, when I set foot on Brazilian soil for the first time, as well as for the noble words that you have just addressed to me and that, with your permission, I want to consider addressed, above my person, to the mission to which I am consecrated and to the universal Church of which I am Pastor.
The trips that I am making, following an initiative of my predecessors, especially Paul VI, constitute an important aspect of my pontifical ministry and of the pastoral government of the Church. These trips have a definite apostolic character and a strictly pastoral purpose; but, even with this religious stamp, they also carry a clear message about man, his values, his dignity and his social coexistence.
I come, therefore, to meet the Church in Brazil, with the Catholic community that constitutes the vast majority of the inhabitants of this vast and highly populated country. But I also come eager to meet all the dear Brazilian people.
2. And so, it is about an encounter with almost half a millennium of human and religious history. In that history there is certainly the inevitable chiaroscuro that is found in the history of every people. May the Lord give you his help so that the light prevails over the shadows. In the historical profile of this noble nation I want to highlight three points:
— the well-known Brazilian cosmopolitanism capable of integrating peoples and values of various ethnic groups, which certainly contribute to the characteristics of openness and universality of the culture of this country;
— Evangelization, carried out with such models and with such continuity that it left profound marks in the life of this people, undoubtedly providing them, insofar as it fits into the mission of the Church, enlightenment, norms, and moral and spiritual energy, with which the human and national community was formed;
— The young dynamism of the population, with its respectable traditions and peculiar qualities, a firm guarantee that the nation will be able to overcome the obstacles it encounters on its historic path, towards a better tomorrow.
3. Evangelized since its dawn, the Brazilian people have lived the faith and the message of Christ, certainly not without problems, but with sincerity and simplicity, clearly witnessed by their traditions, in which one can easily glimpse options, interior attitudes and behaviors that are in fact Christian.
At the same time, as Your Excellency has already been kind enough to remind us, there are many ties that unite Brazil with the Apostolic See of Rome, dating back more than a century and a half to friendly, uninterrupted and increasingly solid official relations with the course of the years. These relationships have a guarantee of authenticity in the love and devotion of Brazilians to the Vicar of Christ. Proof of this is the warmth of the welcome that has been given to me here.
4. Mr. President, Your Excellencies members of Congress, Senate and Federal Supreme Court; Honorable Ministers of State, ladies and gentlemen:
With your honorable presence, upon my arrival and in this meeting, you have wished to pay tribute to the Pastor of the universal Church who feels extremely sensitive: many thanks once again to each of you personally. In my turn I want to express the highest esteem for the lofty mission you carry out. The mandate you have received gives you the privilege —which is also a duty— to serve the common good of the entire nation, serving the Brazilian man. May God help you always to fulfill this mandate.
In my apostolic pilgrimages around the world, I too want, with God's help, to be the bearer of a message and to collaborate, in the humble but indispensable part that corresponds to me, so that an authentic sense of man prevails in the world, not confined in a narrow anthropocentrism, but open towards God.
I think of a vision of man that is not afraid to say: man cannot abdicate himself or his place in the visible world; man cannot become a slave to things, to material wealth, to consumerism, to economic systems or to what he himself produces; man cannot become a slave to anyone or anything; man cannot dispense with transcendence —after all, of God—, without suffering a reduction in his total being; Finally, man will only be able to find light for his "mystery" in the mystery of Christ.
How beneficial it would be for the world to better welcome this understanding of man starting from his full truth, the only one capable of giving human meaning to the various initiatives of daily life: political, economic, social, cultural programs, etc. Properly understood, it could be the basis of true civilization programs, which can only be the "civilization of love."
5. Adhering to her own mission and with full respect for the legitimate institutions of a temporal order, the Church cannot fail to rejoice with everything that is true, just and valid in those institutions at the service of man; she cannot fail to see with satisfaction the efforts that tend to safeguard and promote the fundamental rights and freedoms of every human person, as well as to ensure their responsible participation in community and social life.
For this very reason, the Church does not stop proclaiming the essential reforms for the safeguarding and promotion of values without which no society worthy of the name can prosper; that is to say, reforms that tend to a fairer society and more and more in accordance with the dignity of every human person. And it encourages those responsible for the common good, especially those who claim to be Christians, to undertake these reforms in a timely manner with decision and courage, prudently and effectively, abiding by Christian criteria and principles, objective justice and a true social ethics. By promoting such reforms in this way, it is also avoided that they are sought under the impulse of currents based on which there is no doubt in resorting to violence and the suppression, direct or indirect, of fundamental rights and freedoms,
6. I wish the dear Brazilian people an ever greater fraternity, founded on the authentic sense of man: with freedom, equity, respect, generosity and love among all its members and with a clear and supportive openness towards humanity and the world . I wish you safe and serene peace, a basis for consistent work and the commitment of all for the common progress and well-being. I also wish you the sufficiency of essential goods for your own integral realization. I ask God that every Brazilian, by birth or adoption, respects and always sees the fundamental rights of every human person respected.
Proclaiming and defending such rights, without putting them before the rights of God or silencing the duties to which they correspond, is a constant in the life of the Church, by virtue of the Gospel that is entrusted to her. Hence, the Church does not cease to indicate to all men of good will and encourage their children to respect and cultivate those rights: the right to life, security, work, housing, health, education, private and public religious expression, participation, etc. Among such rights, it is also necessary to highlight, as a priority, the right of parents to have the children they want, receiving at the same time what is necessary to educate them with dignity, and the right to life of the unborn child. We know well how threatened these rights are currently throughout the world.
7. I wholeheartedly bless what is being done here, in communion with universal efforts and which can only redound to the benefit of the poorest and most marginalized, afflicted by the undeserved frustrations of which they are victims. In this sense, it is worth remembering that a transformation of political, social or economic structures could never be consolidated if it were not accompanied by a sincere "conversion" of the mind, will and heart of man with all its truth. Such a conversion must be carried out, always taking care, on the one hand, to avoid pernicious confusion between freedom and instincts —vested interests, struggles or dominance—, and on the other, to arouse solidarity and brotherly love, immune from any false autonomy with regard to bye bye.
In this line of thought, the whole society is co-responsible. But the initiatives and the human and rational direction of the procedures depend to a large extent on those who are invested with functions of government and leadership. They depend on their primordial effort to renew and train mentalities, with adequate, constant and patient measures of education and the use of goodwill, always illuminated by the "certainty that man is the final recipient of his responsibilities and concerns", as Your Excellency wrote to me some time ago.
8. The peculiar qualities of the Brazilian people, together with its long Christian tradition, must lead it to respond correctly to the call and challenge of the approaching third millennium. The communion of minds and hearts in search of the common good, clarified, proposed and directed by the rulers, and with responsible, free, educated and supportive participation of all, must continue to serve man and the supreme good of peace in this great nation, on this continent and in the world.
Reiterating my gratitude to Your Excellency, for the welcome and for all the attention, I formulate fervent wishes that God's abundant blessings descend on Brazil, through the intercession of Our Lady Aparecida, its Patroness.
* L'Osservatore Romano. Weekly Edition in Spanish, no. 27, p.4.
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