Emperor Haile Selassie I's Address to Pope John Paul VI in Vatican City on November 11, 1970

Emperor Haile Selassie I's Address to Pope John Paul VI:

Your Holiness, this is not the first time I have visited the Vatican, nor is it the first time I’ve had the opportunity of talking to your Holiness. I always paid homage to the Vatican and always was pleased to have the opportunity of encountering and discussing problems with you. One basic reason is that, We Ethiopians, as a Christian nation, We have long standing and satisfactory relations with the Catholic Church and the faith. Although We differ in name—the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church—but We must always remember We are all servants of the same Master, that is, Our Creator.

The Catholic faith and men of Catholic religion have contributed to the enrichment of Our culture as well as to the enrichment of Our religious services. Ethiopia has a long standing tradition of religious tolerance and freedom; all the different types of faith in Our country are practiced with complete freedom and tolerance as guaranteed by the Constitution as well as by the custom of Our people.

I am also glad your Holiness to have this opportunity of meeting you today because of your contribution towards the maintenance of international peace and security. Your moral leadership throughout the world has been an outstanding example for men everywhere, and your effort on behalf of peace to maintain life upon the Earth has been unmatched. Your leadership has not been solely in terms of beseeching mankind to follow a certain path but through your own deeds, through an exemplary life, the life you've lived, you contribute to Us, the betterment of mankind.

As everybody knows, the world is not at peace at the present time, blood is being shed on different parts of our planet, this is therefore a high time that under the moral leadership of all peace lovers in the world must join effort in fulfillment of the wish and the command of the Almighty. The relation between the Republic of Italy and Ethiopia, as is well known, has had some unfortunate moments but the time has passed now. Difficulties in Our relations created, misunderstandings created, because men tend to be egotistic. They tend to follow self-interest rather than universal interest, which in the long run is self-interest itself but it is the responsibility of your Holiness and others to make men realize that real interest of man and national interest in their own ground and in the ultimate sense can only be protected by standing by values and commandments contained in Our Holy Books.

Since the time has changed, the unfortunate circumstances that created Our difficulty with the state of Italy have changed, we have reestablished peace and here Our cooperation in mutual respect has been restored. This has been humbly manifested in the last few days by the cordial reception that has been accorded to me by the Government of Italy and the President of the Italian Republic.

As I said earlier, conflicts between man is perhaps inevitable so long as man has his limitation and so long as he can conceive of his interest in terms of the short run but from a long run point of view, the brotherhood of man must be restored and this is in accordance with the interest of every individual. We must in all our daily lives, try to affirm Our belief in Christ and in the teachings of the Lord contained in the Bible. I wish to thank your Holiness for the reception that you have just accorded me and may I say, God bless your continued effort for the maintenance of peace and may God strengthen your moral leadership in the world, thank you.

English translation of Pope John Paul VI's reply: 

Your Majesty, We thank you for your noble and high words that you just made. If Your Majesty will express his satisfaction to be here, we can assure that it is for us a real joy to welcome him into our home. Long ago, Your Majesty—we say in the sincerity of our hearts—that we were expecting your visit. And that's why we were allowed during our interview in Geneva last year, to formulate personally before you hope to see you again. Your presence is indeed significant in many ways. First, because Ethiopia's old and very special relationship with the Holy See. The foundation of the monastery and the church of St. Stephen of the Abyssinians, at the head of the Vatican Basilica, goes high in the annals of Christian Rome. And the fact of his fidelity to a long tradition, Ethiopia is today being the only nation in the world with an ecclesiastical college in the territory of Vatican City. This is indeed the will of Pius XI that in the Constitution of the small independent state territory bounded by the Lateran Pacts, the community received on the Vatican hill, a modern and dignified office of your country: the College of Ethiopia today.

A successor Pius XII was reserved satisfaction to host a permanent representative of your country to the Holy See. He himself wanted to be represented in Addis Ababa in 1955, during the twenty-fifth anniversary of the coronation of your Majesty. Recently, finally, the Representative of Ethiopia to the Holy See assumed the rank of Ambassador, as the Apostolic Internonciature Addis Ababa was elevated to Nunciature. That is to say the length and strength of the links between your homeland to the Holy See. We would be but the truth if we were not doing here an explicit reference to what your Majesty personally has done and continues to do for the Catholic Church and its institutions. We know especially how generously she became interested in the fate of the University of Asmara and many other Catholic foundations, religious or educational purposes. This active benevolence of Your Majesty calls from Us a sense of gratitude, which we are happy to give here expression. It is for us the precious guarantee of a growing cordiality between the civil authority and the Catholic hierarchy in Ethiopia. It is also, for Ethiopian Catholics' insurance for the solution of issues that matter to heart, especially the rapprochement with the Ethiopian Church.

The solicitude of your Majesty goes well beyond the borders of his country. She joined the Nôtre on land that interests cry out to all humanity: the great cause of peace between nations and the acceleration of development in the Third World. That we be allowed to pay tribute publicly since the opportunity is given to us, the contribution of your Majesty on many circumstances this double cause. Your Majesty has shown how it is sensitive to the role of moral and spiritual values in a world where brute force sometimes seems to want to threaten to overwhelm everything.

God bless the efforts of Your Majesty in this area and allow, after the fortieth anniversary of his coronation, the opportunity to deploy a long time his energies to his country of service, respecting human rights and understanding between its peoples, will find the paths of progress and peace. It is the hope that We are wholeheartedly thanking Your Majesty again, his visit, which we honor and invoke upon his person, to the Imperial family, the religious and civil authorities of his country and the dear Ethiopian nation, the most abundant divine blessings.

On November 27, 1970, the 35-year-old Bolivian painter, Benjamin Mendoza, disguised himself as a priest and tried to assassinate Pope Paul VI with a foot-long knife in Manila, Philippines. He was only lightly stabbed thanks to the prompt reaction of the pope's collaborators and the travel organizer, Msgr. Paul Marcinkus. Paul VI was the first pope to make pastoral visits abroad and thus the first pontiff to visit the Philippines.