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AAS 80 - La Santa Sede

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1464<br />

Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale<br />

XI<br />

Ad exc.mum virum Teruo Kosugi, Iaponiae apud <strong>Sede</strong>m Apostolicam<br />

Legatum.*<br />

Mr Ambassador,<br />

I welcome you today and gladly accept the Letters of Credence by<br />

which you have been appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Ple-<br />

nipotentiary of Japan. With gratitude for the kind words of greeting<br />

which you have expressed on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor and<br />

His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince, I would ask you to convey<br />

to them my best wishes and the assurance of my esteem. I fully share<br />

their desire to see the relations existing between Japan and the Holy<br />

See develop and expand still further on the basis of our shared com­<br />

mi tment to peace, harmony, progress and justice among ali the<br />

nations of the earth.<br />

In the contemporary world there is a profound and almost universal<br />

yearning for peace. The awareness of peace as a universal value has<br />

grown, even in the face of the tragic history of the présent Century,<br />

so deeply and terribly marked by conflict and by the ever more<br />

frightening capacity of man to inflict death on a scale never before<br />

imagined. As the only country to have experienced directly the awful<br />

effects of atomic bombing, Japan is a unique witness of the truth<br />

that there can be only one path for the human family to follow :<br />

the path of peace.<br />

It is necessary for individuáis and nations to be ever more con-<br />

vinced that they must wholly commit themselves to easing tensions,<br />

to fostering disarmament and to strengthening the structures of peace.<br />

It is necessary today to think more in terms óf building peace in the<br />

world than simply avoiding conflict. The subjective foundation of<br />

peace is a new spirit of coexistence and a new outlook of respect for<br />

the human person in a willingness to collaborate for the sake of the<br />

progress of ali. 1 This reflects other conditions for peace, especially<br />

a true solidarity among ali people, irrespective of race, religion or<br />

politicai doctrine, as members of the one human family meant to live<br />

on this earth in a constant search for authentic personal and collective<br />

well-being and development.<br />

* Die 29 m. Aprilis a. 1988.<br />

1 Cf. Pope Paul VI, Message for the World Day of Peace, 1 January 1968.

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