Welcome Ceremony (14 August 1983)

On Sunday, 14 August 1983, the Holy Father met with President François Mitterrand during the Welcome Ceremony in the Tarbes-Lourdes -Pyrénées International Airport (France).

Mr President, I am very touched by the words you addressed to me on behalf of the French people and government, and I am sensitive to the homage you pay to my spiritual mission towards all Catholics - of your country and of the universe - as well as to the efforts that this mission entails in favor of peace and justice in the world. I thank you, in a special way, for having wanted to come in person to greet me and to converse with me on important issues, before I begin the pilgrimage for which I have come.

I also thank the French Episcopate who has invited me on several occasions to go to Lourdes, and whom I greet here in the persons of the Cardinals, the President and the Vice President of the Conference, before meeting their brothers in Lourdes. The Lord also allows me to fulfill a desire that has been very dear to me for many years: a desire that many Christians wish to realize in their lives, and even more so a Pope.

Counting on the faithfulness of a humble girl from this country to convey a message from above, the Virgin has made this place a global meeting point for those who believe in the Gospel, for those who pray, for those who suffer, for those who want to be freed from sin, for those who aspire to rediscover in the Church the roots of their communion in faith and charity. I will therefore join you in the prayer, in the religious gestures of the pilgrims from all countries, gathered here.

But I know that most of them will have come from France to coincide with the annual National Pilgrimage. I will therefore pray particularly with the Christian people of this country, for the intentions of the entire French nation and for those who have the task of governing and serving it. I know its past, its merits and the efforts of your fellow citizens - Christians or non-Christians - today as yesterday, so that it remains worthy of its traditions of freedom and brotherhood and of its just concern for peace between the different countries of the world. I also imagine the difficulties that it encounters and which everyone must face according to their spiritual and civil responsibilities. Without denying the complexity of economic and social problems, it is necessary to consider first of all the serious spiritual stakes that underlie them, as I said only two months ago in my country: their correct solution implies everyone's fidelity to their own conscience, a well-defined conscience. educated to discern good and evil, eager for justice, love and truth; a conscience respectful of the mystery of God, which alone can give full meaning to moral needs, as well as to existence itself: a conscience sensitive to the message of the Gospel, transmitted by the Church from generation to generation within your Nation and which has marked of its values ​​are culture, art and customs. Lourdes is precisely that source in which conscience becomes or re-becomes clear and rediscovers its primitive orientation, with Mary, so venerated in this country and for such a long time as in Puy, Fourvière and in many other places.

It is therefore a privileged moment that I am about to experience here, for the progress of the Church and for the good of France, which I ask God to bless through the intercession of "Our Lady"!

© Copyright 1983 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Copyright © Dicastery for Communication - Libreria Editrice Vaticana