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WITHOUT SLOVENIA, EUROPE WOULD BE POORER
Milan Kucan to bid farewell to his Holiness Pope John Paul II
Maribor, 19 May 1996
I believe that you will now be convinced; we do not wish the constant burden of the past to hold us back on our path to the future. We will remember it, and indeed we must remember it. But we will preserve from it what has been and is truly valuable to humankind and to our people.
Your words also inspire us with the hope that Your Holiness personally and the Holy See will continue to find favour in the efforts of our country towards internal peace and for our successful entry into the European institutions of integration.
Your Holiness,
The three days of your stay here among us have passed for us like a rare moment in time, which moves relentlessly on. I trust and believe that in your meetings with the wonderful people of Slovenia, with its administrators, scientists and artists, with its church dignitaries, priests and the many Christians here, you have been convinced that the decision to visit us was correct. You have most probably recognised the will and aspiration towards creative freedom and respect of human dignity among the Slovene people, and our willingness to join together in common work, in which the state serves the people and where responsibility for the future is becoming more important than being trapped in the past. You have also most certainly witnessed the rich cultural, spiritual and other diversity of our people. You will have seen, too, that this diversity has common foundations which stem from our devotion to the universal values of Western European and Christian spiritual civilisation.
We have listened with great attention to the words you spoke on your arrival and at all the meetings, in Ljubljana, Postojna and here in Maribor. You have confirmed our belief that the right course is that which underlines a concern for the future, and which binds together all forces in common work, where the welfare and spiritual freedom of people today are not forgotten, such that in reconciliation, mutual understanding and respect the memory of the unpleasant, and for some unjust, past will finally leave us. May I reiterate my firm conviction that the reconciliation of the Slovene nation, which we so desire, is possible only where it goes hand in hand with a respect for the right to a different understanding of the truth of our past. The Slovene people cannot be led there by the elimination of one exclusive truth by another equally exclusive one. It is only through tolerance that we may truly forgive those injustices committed by people against each other in some cruel and inclement time. I believe that you will now be convinced; we do not wish the constant burden of the past to hold us back on our path to the future. We will remember it, and indeed we must remember it. But we will preserve from it what has been and is truly valuable to humankind and to our people.
Your words also inspire us with the hope that Your Holiness personally and the Holy See will continue to find favour in the efforts of our country towards internal peace and for our successful entry into the European institutions of integration. We need Europe, we are a part of it, and I believe that without us, Europe would be poorer and missing a small but important spiritual, cultural and economic component.
Your Holiness,
I thank you for your visit and for the good favour you have shown the people of Slovenia. May your encounter with us remain a pleasant memory. Here in Slovenia you have friends!
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