Your
Excellency the Governor General of Canada,
Your Eminences,
Your Grace
the President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops,
Your Grace
the Archbishop of Quebec,
Dear Brothers
in the Episcopate,
Your
Excellency the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec,
Mr. Prime Minister,
Mr. Premier of Quebec,
Mr.
President of the Quebec Urban Community,
Your
Honour the Mayor of Quebec,
Your
Honour the Mayor of the City of Sainte-Foy,
All you dignitaries and civil and religious authorities of this country,
"May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ send you grace and
peace"
(1 Cor 1,3).
Before speaking to those whom you represent I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to her Excellency the Right Honourable Jeanne Sauvé.
Madame, I cannot take up here the
various points of your speech. We will have
another meeting in Ottawa. But I would like to say even now how deeply I have been touched by your words. Their sensitivity and dignity,
the precise perception that you have of the meaning of my apostolic
mission in the world, your profound insight into my pastoral intent in Canada,
your touching evocation of the Canadian people, your
exacting and warm words concerning the
destiny of this dear country. The personal witness that you give within the framework of your high office, all
this constitutes for me the best possible message of welcome and at the
same time a powerful encouragement to begin with
confidence the various stages of my pilgrimage in your native land. Please accept my most sincere thanks.
Greetings
to you, people of Canada, in the diversity of your history, of your cultures, of your provinces, of your regions.
In this vast country that
is Canada, it is at Quebec that I begin my pilgrimage,
and I am very happy to do so. I greet you, Quebec, first church in North America, first witness to the
faith, you who have raised the cross along your roads and who have
spread the Gospel throughout this blessed
land.
Greetings to you, people of Quebec, whose traditions, language and
culture give your society such distinctive
features in North America.
Greetings to you people of this country, Amerindians, people of French
and English origin, immigrants from throughout the world who live here alongside
one another, making your way together and sharing the difficult but
exciting path of history.
Greetings to you, believers in Jesus Christ
and members of the Catholic Church. Let us seek together the firmness of the
faith, which expresses itself in the perfection of
love.
Greetings to you, believers
in Jesus Christ and members of other Christian confessions. Let us seek together the same Christ and Lord.
Greetings to you, believers in God and heirs of the people of
Israel. Let us seek together the Word of
Life.
Greetings to you, believers andd [sp] members of other spiritual families.
Let us seek together the face of God.
Greetings to you, men and women who seek a
meaning for your life but who find no satisfactory answer to your deepest aspirations. You try to live your life with dignity and responsibility. Let us seek
together the best way of 1ife.
To all of you, I bring the greetings of the
Church of Rome and of the whole
Church of God living in communion with her throughout the
universe. I bring with me
the love, the joy, the pain and the hope of your brothers and sisters all over
the world. In return, I hope to be able to share with the world something of you, an echo of your
human dynamism and your religious vitality.
For a long time you have waited for
me. And I, for my part, have greatly longed
to be with you.
It is not as a Head of State that I come to visit you. The Vatican
is indeed recognized as a "State"
on the international plane in order better to ensure the freedom of the Holy
See, in the service of the spiritual mission
of the Successor of Peter. The Holy See is entitled to have its diplomatic
Representatives, and I am pleased that Canada has appointed to it an
Ambassador. In this way the Holy See is able to give its witness on the
international scene and to take part in important discussions which affect the destiny of the world community.
But it is, above all, as pastor and brother that I come to you. I am the pastor who succeeds the first pastor, the
apostle, Peter. I am the father:
that is what the word Pope means. But I am also your brother,
your brother in humanity
and your brother in obedience to the great pastor of the Church, the good
Shepherd, Jesus Christ.
I am among you to share the bread and the
word, to share hope, to bring you the word of God and the
bread of the Eucharist.
In the next eleven days I shall cross your country from one ocean
to the other, "a mari usque ad
mare". I have some questions to ask you, and I would like also to hear yours. I would like
to speak to you about the issues of
our times, concerning culture, the community, technology, the family, sharing and justice. This is because
nothing is irrelevant to the charity of the believer, to his or her love for
humanity. I wish, above all,
to speak to you about the fundamental problems: about the faith, about the experience of God, about hope. My word
does not claim to furnish an answer
to all your questions, or to replace your searching. But it will offer
you the light and the strength of faith in Jesus Christ as proclaimed by Peter himself in Galilee: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!"
I would like my words to be an
act of sharing. The sharing of a brother in faith. The sharing of a pilgrim, a witness to the lives of the
men and women of today. The
sharing of a man aware of the spiritual crisis of the times, concerned with justice; of a man confident
too in the possibilities of the human heart once it has been transformed by the
love of God. "Be
brave", said Jesus, "I have conquered the world!" (Jn 16,33)
As your Bishops have said so well: Let us
celebrate our faith in Jesus Christ.
My visit is intended to be essentially pastoral. I would like to recount to all believers the joy of believing in Jesus Christ. For, of all the blessings in life, faith is the most
precious, the most beautiful. May my pilgimage [sp] here be the symbol
of your journey in the faith. For this very reason, I would like to come among
you as a witness of hope. I would like to
assure the Bishops of my fraternal interest. I would like to offer a special
word of support to the priests, to the men and women religious, and to the laity
in charge of many sectors of the apostolate.
Brothers and Sisters, friends already, let us travel together, let
us look to the One who unites us. 0 Lord,
Our God, "how great is your name throughout
the earth!" (Ps 8)
May the name of God echo in your hearts and may this visit bring
to us, both to you and to me, comfort and
fresh joy.
Conférence
des évêques catholiques du Canada