Pope Benedict XVI’s Discourse to Ambassadors at the Presentation of Letter of Credentials

(December 15, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI welcomed eleven new Ambassadors to the Holy See on Thursday in the Vatican, among them three Asians as they presented their letters of Credentials and urged them to promote human dignity as the nations go ahead in the common search of truth, goodness and beauty in the face of pluralism. The three Asians are Mr Muhammad Saleem of Pakistan, Ms Tamara Kunanayakam of Sri Lanka and Ms Arbhorn Manasvanich of Thailand. The Pontiff said that we are all responsible for everyone and it is important to have a positive concept of integral human development that enables humanity to march toward its total realisation of human dignity. At the same time, to broaden the scope of solidarity and promote sustainable growth, the education of youth is necessary. In this context, the Pope said that as with their level of responsibility and especially as leaders they should be innovative, to make and invest the resources necessary to give the youth the basic ethical foundations, including their support to form, and to fight against social ills such as unemployment, drugs, crime and lack of respect for the individual. Further the Pope said that the new challenges that their countries are now facing call for a mobilization of intelligence and creativity of man to fight against poverty and for a more efficient and sound use of energy and resources. Both individually and politically, this is a decisive move towards more concrete and more widely shared responsibility with regard to the respect and protection of creation. The Pope added that as we are all linked to each other because of the Social Communication net work, there has been progress in international exchange, trade, and economic expansion that has brought us to the understanding that we are all responsible for everyone and it is important for us to have a positive concept of solidarity. We are all responsible for everyone and it is important to have a positive concept of solidarity, the Pope said. The Holy See at present has full diplomatic relations with more than 180 countries.