Pope Francis delivered an address to the Corps of Diplomats Accredited to the Holy See on Monday morning, during the course of his traditional exchange of New Year’s greetings with the diplomats at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. Below, please find the full text of the official English translation of the Holy Father’s prepared remarks.

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS

Monday, 11 January 2016

Your Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I offer you a cordial welcome to this annual gathering.  It allows me to offer you my best wishes for the New Year and to reflect with you on the state of our world, so loved and blessed by God, and yet fraught with so many ills.  I thank your new Dean, His Excellency Armindo Fernandes do Espírito Santo Veira, the Ambassador of Angola, for his kind greeting in the name of the entire Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See.  In a special way, I would also like to remember the late Ambassadors of Cuba, Rodney Alejandro López Clemente, and Liberia, Rudolf P…

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