Pope Benedict Receives Letters of Credence From the New Ambassador to the Holy See

( 29 Feb 08 – RV) The New U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, Professor Mary Ann Glendon, presented her Letters of Credence to Pope Benedict XVI this morning at the Vatican.
 In written remarks Pope Benedict delivered to Ambassador Glendon , the Holy Father said he looks forward to his Pastoral Visit to the United States in April.

The Pope said, from the dawn of the Republic, America has been a nation which values the role of religious belief in ensuring a vibrant and ethically sound democratic order.

Pope Benedict said the American people’s historic appreciation of the role of religion in shaping public discourse and in shedding light on the inherent moral dimension of social issues - a role he said at times is contested in the name of a straitened understanding of political life and public discourse - is reflected in the efforts of so many of America’s citizens and government leaders to ensure legal protection for God’s gift of life from conception to natural death, and the safeguarding of the institution of marriage, acknowledged as a stable union between a man and a woman, and that of the family.

The Pope said the progress of the human family is threatened not only by the plague of international terrorism, but also by such threats to peace as the quickening pace of the arms race and the continuance of tensions in the Middle East.

Pope Benedict expressed his hope that patient and transparent negotiations will lead to the reduction and elimination of nuclear weapons and that the recent Annapolis Conference will be the first of a series of steps towards lasting peace in the Middle East.

The resolution of these and similar problems, said Pope Benedict calls for trust in, and commitment to, the work of international bodies such as the United Nations Organization, which by their nature are capable of fostering genuine dialogue and understanding, reconciling divergent views, and developing multilateral policies and strategies capable of meeting the manifold challenges of our complex and rapidly changing world.