ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS PAUL VI
TO A GROUP OF BRAZILIAN DEPUTIES

Saturday, 8 October 1977

Your visit gives us great pleasure. We appreciate the delicate act of homage which confirms the traditional attachment to the Holy See of the Catholic people of Brazil, of whom you, Federal Deputies, are the qualified representatives.

Greeting Your Excellencies and our families, we think of your dear country and all the Brazilian families whose highest interest you are trying to defend, in the framework of the Commission for the Family of the Chamber of Deputies. Wishing happiness and success to yourself as and your activities, we hope that the families of your country, always enlightened by the practice of the virtues and faithfulness to the values of the home, will continue to be a source of moral and spiritual energies, capable of supporting and strengthening the bonds of collective life and of transforming society into a community of brothers.

According to a declaration of the recent Council: "The well-being of the individual person and of human and Christian society is intimately linked with the healthy condition of that community produced by marriage and family" (Gaudium et Spes, n. 47).

That is why Christians, and all those who devote themselves in layout of homes worthy of the name, rejoice in all the factors that cause the growth of esteem among men for this community of love and respect for life.

Hoping that the good families of your country will contribute more and more to promoting a fully human life, we willingly bless you, your families and all Brazilian families.

*ORa n.44 p.2.