[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 22 (Monday, June 6, 1994)]
[Pages 1193-1194]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to American Seminarians in Vatican City

June 2, 1994

    Thank you very much, Cardinal, Mr. Ambassador. After that political 
comment he made he has another good reason to go to confession now. 
[Laughter] Cardinal Baum, Cardinal Szoka, to all of you here, and 
especially to the American seminarians who are here, let me say it is a 
profound honor for me and for Hillary and for our entire American party 
to be here in the Vatican today and for me to have had the meeting that 
I just had with His Holiness.
    We had a wonderful discussion about a large number of things. I'm 
always amazed to find him so vigorously involved in the affairs of the 
world. We talked about the difficulties in Bosnia, as you might imagine. 
We talked a lot about Poland and Eastern Europe. We talked at some 
length about Russia and our emerging relationships there.
    We talked quite a long while about Asia, about the need to protect 
religious freedoms in Asian countries and to promote that. And I pledged 
to the Pope my best efforts to work with other nations, especially 
nations in Asia, in the cause of religious freedom. We talked about the 
challenges presented at the moment by the dispute we're having with 
North Korea.
    We talked at great length about the role of the Islamic states in 
the future of the world, not only in the Middle East but elsewhere. We 
talked a lot about the Middle East, and I thanked His Holiness for the 
recognition that the Holy See has given to Israel and the support to the 
peace process.
    We talked about the upcoming conference in Cairo on world population 
problems, about where we agreed and where we didn't and how we could 
come together on a policy that would promote responsible growth of the 
world's population and still reaffirm our common commitment for the 
central role of the family in every society.
    It was for me, as it was last year in Denver, an awe-inspiring 
experience. But I hope it

[[Page 1194]]

was also an important experience for the people who we represent and the 
progress we are trying to make.
    For those of you who are American seminarians here, I would like to 
say a special word of appreciation for the role of the Catholic Church 
in our country. There are 20,000 parishes, 9,000 Catholic elementary and 
high schools, over 200 Catholic colleges and universities, one of which 
gave me a degree a long time ago. The thing I have always revered about 
the Catholic Church was the sense of constancy and commitment of the 
Church in our national life, the sense of putting one's life, one's 
money, one's time where one's stated ideas are.
    The Catholic Church has brought together faith and action, word and 
deed, bringing together people across the lines of rich and poor, of 
racial lines and other lines perhaps better than any other institution 
in our society. And I am convinced that it's been able to do that 
because people like you, those of you who are here as seminarians, have 
been willing to make the ultimate commitment of your entire lives in the 
service of that in which you believe.
    In all secular societies, it is recognized that very few people have 
the capacity to make a commitment of that depth and constancy. And yet 
all of us know that, ultimately, the meaning of our lives depends upon 
the constant effort to achieve a level of integrity between what we feel 
and what we think and what we do. And I stand here today to tell you 
that as an American President I am immensely proud of the commitment you 
have made.
    Hillary and I have a friend, whom we treasure greatly, who is a 
Jesuit priest who I met over 30 years ago, who went to law school with 
us later and who continues to labor to fulfill his vows. And one of my 
most treasured possessions that I ever received from a personal friend 
was a letter that he wrote to us after he had been a priest for 20 
years, explaining without being at all self-righteous what it had meant 
to him to have kept his vows for two decades and why he thought in a way 
he had lived a selfish life because he had achieved a measure of peace 
and comfort and energy that he could have found in no other way.
    It is that feeling that I think ultimately we want for all the 
people of our Nation and all the people of the world. And for your 
example in taking us in that direction, I thank you very much.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at approximately 1:05 p.m. in the Sala 
Clementina at the Vatican. In his remarks, he referred to U.S. 
Ambassador to the Holy See Raymond Flynn; William Cardinal Baum, major 
penitentiary, Apostolic Penitentiary; and Edmund Cardinal Szoka, 
president, Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See. A tape 
was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.