THERE IS NO TRUE WELL-BEING WITHOUT UNIVERSAL EDUCATION

VATICAN CITY, APR 14, 2000 (VIS) - This morning the Pope received the Letters of Credence of the new ambassador from the Republic of Argentina, Vicente Espeche Gil, who between 1972 and 1978 was secretary of the embassy he now heads.

John Paul II expressed his happiness that the Argentine nation "has managed to live the last few years in a climate of political calm, with no great disturbances. ... It is my fervent wish that this civic maturity may become ever more consolidated in a just understanding of the human person."

The policies a government implements to stimulate the growth of the nation must take into account "the integrity of the development of human beings who are, at the same time, both individual and social, and in whom spiritual and religious values are no less fundamental than material ones."

"Indeed," continued the Pope, "a country's growth cannot be measured exclusively in terms of its production of wealth, although this is an indispensable condition and, consequently, a goal that must be pursued. ... There is no true well-being without adequate education at all levels and available to all, a just social order and a rapid administration of justice."

"If the basic values and institutions of the whole of society - the family and the protection of minors and the most needy - are abandoned, it will not be possible to construct a solid and hopeful future. Even less so, if the very foundations of law, liberty and the dignity of persons are undermined, attacking life at the moment of conception. As you have indicated, these values represent a common heritage which must be defended, even in the international arena, in order to offer a more promising future to all humanity."

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