ADDRESS OF POPE FRANCIS
TO THE PERSONNEL OF THE APOSTOLIC FLORERIA AND THEIR FAMILIES

Clementine Hall
Friday, 17 January 2014

I extend a cordial greeting to you and your families, dear friends.

In recent months I have come to realize how valuable your work is. It principally concerns the logistical preparation of the audiences and celebrations held in the Vatican Basilica, in St Peter’s Square, in the Paul VI Hall, in the Apostolic Palace and in the other papal basilicas. The arrangement of the areas for the various meetings of the Pope with pilgrims as well as the different activities of the Holy See is an indispensable task to ensure that the areas are attractive and functional.

Your work, which also includes the ordinary maintenance of the Vatican premises, is demanding and requires a spirit of sacrifice and much patience. I am thinking, for example, of the weekly work of arranging the thousands of chairs for the pilgrims who come for the General Audiences; as well the tasks of your various workshops. I offer you my heartfelt thanks for the care, professionalism and availability with which you carry out your work. I encourage you to persevere in fidelity to your duties and to maintain among yourselves a climate of peace, mutual trust and goodness. This style of life and work will redound to the benefit of the entire working community of the Vatican.

With these wishes, I invoke upon you and your families the protection of St Joseph the Worker, who took care of the Holy Family, Jesus; and with affection I impart my blessing to you. And before invoking Our Lady, let us ask Our Lady also to watch over us. Hail Mary...