ADDRESS OF PAUL VI
TO THE AMBASSADOR OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON*

Friday, 24 October 1975

Mr. Ambassador,

Thanking you for the kind wishes with which you accompany the presentation of these Letters of Credence, we think that this ceremony marks a memorable day in the history of your country, while at the same time it gives us great joy: it is the first time that an Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary is sent by the United Republic of Cameroon to assume a permanent mission to the Holy See.

This tells you how heartily we welcome Your Excellency and your message. Beyond your worthy person, we are happy to greet His Excellency El Harj Ahmadou Ahidjo, President of the Republic, whose good wishes we appreciate, and also the whole people of your young nation, whose efforts and hopes we follow with interest.

The diplomatic relations that have been established for a certain time between the Holy See and Cameroon and which are now entering a more active phase, have the purpose of giving a more stable and favourable basis to the friendly relations already existing between them. These relations cannot but facilitate, within your country, the mutual esteem and loyal and fruitful collaboration between the Catholic Church and those whose task it is to ensure e the temporal welfare of all the citizens and lead the political destiny of the ration.

Already before the accession at the country to independence, the bishops had encouraged the evolution towards a gradual taking over of public affairs by Cameroon nationals themselves, in an atmosphere of freedom and prosperity, while dealing that the great laws of the Gospel should always be respected. In the same line, today, they manifest concern to see then faithful fully integrate the values of the African soul in their original faith and its expressions. So we are certain that these Catholics together with their Christian brothers will render to an ever increasing extent a first-class service to their native land by working to ensure that their compatriots, one and all, will benefit from progress and worthy living conditions, in an atmosphere of freedom, justice and brotherhood. We appreciated the fact that Your Excellency recalled the desire of your Government for tolerance and generosity, a testimony of which we have recently received, and are far from forgetting.

Your country is concerned not only with domestic peace; it wishes to contribute, in its own way, to consolidate among African nations and the world a peace that respects their destiny and the will of their populations, and which encourages the fundamental work in which all men should be engaged today: the harmonious development of their economic riches, their cultural possibilities, their social organization. We are touched by the esteem and benevolence you manifest in this field towards the action of the Holy See. Here, you will be, we hope, a happy witness of it, together with colleagues who have come from all over the world. The aim pursued in this place is to make a disinterested contribution to peaceful relations and to the spiritual progress of peoples.

Our cordial wishes accompany you, Mr Ambassador, in this mission that you are inaugurating today. May the Lord bless you, and your family! May He assist the Authorities you represent here and the whole people, of Cameroon, whom we assure once more of our affectionate esteem.