NEW FILIPINO AMBASSADOR PRESENTS LETTERS OF CREDENCE

VATICAN CITY, FEB 8, 2002 (VIS) - This morning, John Paul II received in audience the new ambassador from the Philippines, Francisco Acevedo Alba, who presented his Letters of Credence.

The Pope began his address by affirming that in the words of the ambassador's speech concerning the hopes and efforts of the Filipino people in the cause of peace "there is an echo of that universal longing for goodness, justice and solidarity in human relations which has been cruelly shaken by the events of recent months."

"The recent gathering for peace at Assisi ... showed how people of very different religious and cultural backgrounds are firmly convinced that violence in all its forms is totally incompatible with true religious sentiment, and indeed with human dignity. It is the task of the leaders of nations to find the practical and technical ways to translate into laws, institutions and actions the yearning of the human heart for the tranquility of order which is true peace."

John Paul II went on to address the actual situation in the Philippines, saying: "Your own country is not unaffected by what is happening. A negotiated solution to longstanding difficulties has not been forthcoming and the level of conflict has risen." Quoting his Message for the World Day of Peace 2002, the Pope highlighted that "the pillars of peace in your land, as everywhere else, are justice and forgiveness: the justice which ensures full respect for rights and responsibilities, and equitable distribution of benefits and burdens; and the forgiveness which heals and rebuilds troubled human relations from their foundations. Certainly, we cannot think that justice and forgiveness will come as the result of violence and conflict."

Speaking of "common good as the purpose of good governance," John Paul II affirmed: "This good is a human good, looking to the integral well-being of people in all their complexity. ... It would be a grave mistake to limit public policies to the search for economic progress, which is all too often measured in terms of increased consumerism, as if that alone could satisfy people's aspirations. ... True progress cannot but take proper account of a people's cultural and spiritual needs and traditions."

On this subject, the Pope turned to consider the globalization of the economy which, he said, "with its leveling of cultural differences, is not necessarily and in every case a solution to real needs. In fact, it can aggravate the imbalances already evident in the relations between those who benefit from the world's growing capacity to produce wealth and those who are left at the margin of progress. The great moral challenge facing nations and the international community is to combine development with solidarity - a genuine sharing of benefits - in order to overcome both dehumanizing underdevelopment and the 'overdevelopment' which considers people as mere economic units in a consumer system."
In closing, the Holy Father recalled that fruitful cooperation between public authorities and the Church, "each in their own sphere," is necessary to "set economic and political life within a genuinely moral framework." In the Philippines, he said, "there is a long tradition of mutual support and cooperation between the Church and civil society. ... The challenges before your nation are great. ... Building on the best Filipino traditions of family life and mutual concern and service, and curtailing the excesses of privilege and partisan interests, the nation can look to a very bright future."

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