    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [August 12, 1993]
    [Pages 1370-1371]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Welcoming Pope John Paul II in Denver, Colorado
    August 12, 1993

        Your Holiness, I think you can see from the wonderful reception you
    have received that the United States is honored to have you in Denver. I
    thank you for coming to Denver, to this historic gathering of young
    people from across the world.
        I want to extend a special thanks to the cosponsors of World Youth
    Day, Archbishop Keeler and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops
    and the Pontifical Council for the Laity. I'm especially gratified that
    so many leading Catholic Americans could join us today. And I'd like to
    pay special tribute to one, my good friend, the former Mayor of Boston
    and our Ambassador to the Vatican, Ray Flynn. I also thank my friends
    Governor Roy Romer, Mayor Willington Webb, the members of the city
    council, and Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder, in whose district we now
    stand--or sit, as the case may be.
        I want to thank the people of Denver who have opened their hearts
    and their homes to these young people and say a few words of
    appreciation, Holy Father, to American Catholics especially.
        As the Catholic Church prepares to enter its third millennium, our
    Nation prepares to enter its third century. It is altogether fitting
    that such a young country would host World Youth Day. America has
    maintained its youth by always being able to change while holding fast
    to its fundamental values: a determination to support family and work;
    to the proposition that all children matter and we don't have a one to
    waste; to the proposition that in every corner of the world, race or
    creed should not deter any young

    [[Page 1371]]

    boy or girl from growing up to the fullest of their God-given
    capacities.
        Your Holiness, even though I am not myself a Roman Catholic, I was
    educated as a young boy by nuns and as a young man by Jesuit priests.
    And I might add, since we're in the business of paying compliments, I
    appointed a man born in Poland to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
    Staff yesterday. But all Americans without regard to their religious
    affiliation are grateful to the Catholics of this country for the
    standards they have set for citizenship and service, for supporting
    their families and working well at their assigned tasks, and for caring
    about the less fortunate.
        And all Americans without regard to their religious faith are
    grateful to you, Your Holiness, for your moral leadership. For we know
    that you were the force to light the spark of freedom over communism in
    your native Poland and throughout Eastern Europe, that you have been an
    advocate for peace and justice among nations and peoples, a strong voice
    calling for an end to hatred and to hunger everywhere and reminding
    people blessed with abundance that they must offer special comfort to
    the poor and the dispossessed. Your presence here is welcome. America is
    a better, stronger, more just nation because of the influence that you
    have had on our world in recent years and because of the influence that
    American Catholics have had on our Nation from the very beginning of our
    birth.
        If we were to find one sentence that would sum up the Catholic
    social mission, the work that Catholics have done as citizens, it would
    be the great line from our only Catholic President's inaugural speech
    when President Kennedy said, ``We must always remember that here on
    Earth God's work must be our own.''
        In 1987, Your Holiness, when you came to Detroit, you said that each
    of us must be instrumental in promoting a social order that respects the
    dignity of persons and serves the common good. That is what we must all
    be about. America today is striving to achieve that goal. We have many
    problems here, and we are trying to address many problems abroad. We
    dare not turn away from our obligations to one another. Your presence
    here today will remind us all of those obligations, of the values by
    which you have lived, of the causes for which you have worked.
        I ask you now to come to this platform to welcome a grateful nation
    and many tens of thousands of young people from all across the world who
    are privileged to be in your presence here today.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:45 p.m. at Stapleton International
    Airport. In his remarks, he referred to Archbishop William H. Keeler of
    Baltimore, president, National Conference of Catholic Bishops.