CHRISTMAS TREE - A GIFT FROM REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA TO HIS HOLINESS POPE JOHN PAUL II.
Speech by the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Milan Kucan

Vatican, 14 December 1996



Your Eminence Cardinal Castillo Lara,
Excellencies,
My Dear Countrymen and women,
Most Reverend Slovene Bishops,
All people of good will gathered here today and throughout the world,


With our arms open in friendship and our thoughts pure, Slovenia offers to His Holiness this traditional gift of a Christmas tree. For 76 years this beautiful spruce grew on the soil of our Slovene homeland, which with great hopes recalls the recent visit of Pope John Paul II.

His message of mutual understanding and peace is our message, too. We bring this message with us, and from St. Peter's Square tonight we send it out to all people of the world.

May peace reign over us. May our planet become free of hatred and intolerance, and our world be free of hunger and evil. May the Christmas holidays bring to all people inner peace, so that we shall not be consumed by discord, and so that we shall find mutual respect as well as understanding for one another. And may we recognise each other's right to search for the truth.

Throughout the world, and also in my own country.

May our inner peace fill us with sufficient strength to create a civilisation of cooperation and love.

I thank all the people of my country who contributed to this special moment today. All Slovenia is honoured and proud.

To all I wish a very merry Christmas holiday, and a happy and peaceful New Year.