VATICAN CITY, JAN 10, 2004 (VIS) - The Pope today received the Letters of Credence of Kouame Benjamin Konan, the new ambassador from the Ivory Coast to the Holy See.
Recalling the "serious crisis" that the Ivory Coast has been going through since September 2002, the Pope said he "greatly hopes that the process of national reconciliation will be pursued and intensified and that the dialogue of arms gives way to the arms of dialogue."
He emphasized that "the will to bring to term the disarmament of the various parties engaged in conflict is an important step on the path to peace as it shows the noble desire to say yes to harmony and no to violence. ... I do not doubt that this disarmament will concern all arms held by the populations, thus contributing to the inner stability of the country. The prospect of the free circulation of persons and goods must also allow the authorities to restore confidence to the populations and give them the possibility of possessing the most fundamental goods." The Holy Father noted that institutions and administrations "must be re-established without delay as we know that such infrastructures ... are essential to the dynamism of the country."
"Consolidating relations of trust between human and religious communities which comprise your country," the Pope went on, "is a major stake and a necessary condition for making reciprocal fear disappear and for rediscovering the joy of living together. I call on religious leaders and the members of all communities to commit all their energy to this task so essential to the stability ... of the nation. Likewise, mutual trust ... is rooted in the promotion of universal moral values, such as respect for human rights and the sense of the dignity of each person."
The Pope said he was "pleased" at the ambassador's positive comments on the role and actions of the Catholic Church in the Ivory Coast "in participating in a specific way ... in the peaceful resolution of the conflict in your country" and "in the active part that the Catholic Church is taking to assure, in relation with international organizations, the material, medical, psychological and spiritual aid for displaced persons and victims traumatized by war."
"The love of Christ, to which the Church witnesses to all of mankind," concluded John Paul II, "invites her to be concerned with all men, paying particular heed to those who are the weakest and those who suffer. Refusing all divisions, which place in peril the common good, ... the Church knows she is called to the integral growth of persons and peoples, in conformity with their vocation."
CD/LETTERS CREDENCE/IVORY COAST VIS 20040112 (440)
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