Welcome Ceremony
ShareOn Sunday, 8 September 1985, the Holy Father responded to the welcome he received at Eschen-Mauren, as he began his Pastoral Visit to Liechtenstein.
Height!
1. I thank you from my heart for the noble homage of welcome which, in your capacity as Head of this country, situated “up on the young Rhine”, you have addressed to me and to your companions on behalf of yourself, your family, the authorities and the people of Liechtenstein. With genuine sympathy I reciprocate this greeting and I wish all of you, gathered here awaiting my arrival to welcome me and accompany me in the various meetings of today, the peace of Christ; as a witness and servant of the Redeemer I have come today, the feast of the birth of Mary, to this principality located in the heart of Europe. I greet your family, the members of the parliament and government of Liechtenstein, the representatives of the state authorities and the municipalities and all the citizens of the country. I address a particularly cordial greeting to the bishop of the diocese of Chur, to whose pastoral care this region has been entrusted for a very long time, Monsignor Johannes Vonderach, as well as to the clergy of the deanery of Liechtenstein. I then greet all the religious and lay people who have come from abroad and who are here today to be close to me on the occasion of this pastoral visit. And finally I greet all those who are participating in the events of this day through the media. To everyone in this country, those who are in the places of the meetings or in their homes, and also to all those who are beyond the borders of Liechtenstein, I address a cordial greeting!
2. As on the occasion of my pastoral journeys to the various continents, here too, first of all, I kissed the earth of Liechtenstein as a sign of my consideration for this country and its inhabitants. This gesture of sympathy is desired on my part, as a gesture of my respect for the world created by God and of my adoration for the Creator, to whom we men owe our existence and all that it includes. At the same time, this gesture recalls that "holy kiss" with which the Apostle of the Gentiles invites us to greet all our brothers ( 1 Thess 5:26). This kiss is a sign of the love of Christ himself, and it is this love that impels me, his humble representative on earth, to meet the peoples great and small in their own land and to bring them the glad tidings of peace and reconciliation, of salvation and redemption.
On the occasion of the Extraordinary Holy Year of the Redemption, together with their Bishop and their priests, as well as with the authorities of the State and of the various municipalities, many inhabitants of this country undertook an unforgettable pilgrimage to the tombs of the Prince of the Apostles. It was on that occasion that, in agreement with the local Bishop and in the name of the Church and the people of this country, during the special audience of 14 October 1983, you invited me to make a pastoral visit to the Principality of Liechtenstein. Today I am here as a guest and pilgrim in this community of which I then said: "The history and traditions of your country bear the imprint of the spirit of Christianity and win for the Principality of Liechtenstein, through the respectability and industriousness of its citizens, an honourable place in the community of peoples" ( Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II , VI/2 [1983] 766).
3. Dear citizens of Liechtenstein, earn this place again and again! Do not rest on your laurels! Always be ready to complete what you have achieved so far! Your ancestors have remained faithful to the Catholic religion throughout the centuries. Many works, in words and writings, in art and culture, bear witness to this fact. Rekindle this union of yours with the Church and with the Bishop of Rome, who is in charge of that Church, of which Saint Ignatius of Antioch writes that he “has the presidency of love”! From the beginning of my pontificate I began to travel, to proclaim this love which has its foundation in truth and which obliges us to unity. In the guise of this proclaimer, I come to you today to convince you of the fact that your community can be renewed only as a result of an interior religious-moral change of the person and of the Christian family. This must be the starting point from which to begin the popular mission which, following my pastoral visit, will take place in your homeland and which will have as its theme: “Encounter with life”.
4. The material well-being that has occurred in this country in an unthinkable way in recent years and decades and which ensures you a very high standard of living, testifies to your ability. However, it requires, at the same time, an equal maturity and moral responsibility, otherwise it only leads very easily to comfort, to the satisfaction of selfish needs and to irresponsibility towards one's neighbor. It exposes one to ways of thinking and behaving that are not compatible with the demands of the Christian ethos, based on the law of love for God and neighbor. With the accumulation of material goods there is the danger of losing sight of the value and dignity of human life as a whole or even of despising them. If you truly want to encounter life in Christ, you must first emerge from the hedonism of greed and mere enjoyment and take that narrow but promising path that leads to the true summit of life: to perfection in the eternity of God.
Take care, strength of Christian responsibility, of your dear homeland and of the well-being of all citizens. Your beautiful country lives on geographical proximity. In the narrowness of relationships you are aware of this every day. Continue to care for good neighborliness and continue with that dialogue that you began some time ago. Preserve your identity, indeed, learn to know it even better! It is for me, to whom divine Providence has allowed to come to this country today, an intimate desire to bless you also for this mission of yours in this world and to recommend you to the maternal protection of Mary.
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