[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 40 (Monday, October 9, 1995)]
[Pages 1762-1764]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Welcoming Pope John Paul II in Newark, New Jersey

October 4, 1995

    Archbishop McCarrick, Archbishop Cacciavillan, Cardinal Keeler, 
Father Theroux, the members of the Cabinet, the Members of the Congress, 
Governor Whitman, Mayor James, honored guests: Your Holiness, it is a 
great pleasure and an honor to welcome you back to the United States.
    You seemed to bring us the rain, but we need the rain, and we thank 
you for that. Your return has been greatly anticipated by the American 
people, and as you have gathered from the welcome of the children and 
the not-so-young, all Americans are very, very happy to see you.
    This is our third opportunity to visit. I look forward to our 
discussion, and I am grateful that your voice--for peace and hope and 
for the values that support every family and the family of humanity.
    On this, your fourth visit to our Nation, you will see an America 
striving to build on our ideals of peace and charity, justice, and 
tolerance. When you visit the United Nations and you speak to the 
General Assembly you will be retracing the steps of Pope Paul VI in his 
visit to the United States which began 30 years ago this day. He became 
the first Pontiff to visit our beloved country when he spoke to the 
United Nations in the name of peace.
    The Catholic faithful here in America have always taken an active 
role in making our country better. The Catholic Church helps the poor, 
the children, the elderly, the afflicted, and our families. You will see 
their

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handiwork here in the city of Newark and throughout your visit. The 
Church has given life to the idea that in the human community we all 
have obligations to one another. This idea is rooted in Church 
institutions, including thousands of charitable activities, the Catholic 
Charities, the Campaign for Human Development, the network of Catholic 
hospitals, and other agencies that help all Americans, and of course, it 
is rooted in the 9,000 Catholic elementary and high schools, and more 
than 200 Catholic colleges here in the United States. And they too, 
thankfully, serve all Americans.
    As distinct as Catholicism is, it shares something with many other 
faiths in our Nation, the unshakable values that are at the core of our 
society that hold us together as a country. We Americans are a people of 
faith, expressed in many ways. With the most diverse population on 
Earth, our Nation counts more religions than any other, more than 1,500, 
and more places of worship than any other. Indeed, even as we gather 
here now, many of our fellow citizens are in their synagogues fasting 
and observing the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, the 
day of atonement.
    Our great American poet, Walt Whitman, who I know is a favorite of 
yours, once wrote about America, ``The real and permanent grandeur of 
these States must be their religion. Otherwise, there is no real and 
permanent grandeur.'' That is the America that awaits you and your 
visit, Your Holiness. Our faith matters to us as individuals and as 
families. Our faith supports our families, strengthens them, and keeps 
them together.
    Your Holiness, you have written and spoken so eloquently of family 
rights, and women and men everywhere welcomed your recent open letter on 
the dignity and rights of women. The First Lady and I thank you, 
especially, for the words of support from the Holy See regarding her 
speech on the rights of families, women, and their children, at the 
recent Conference on Women in Beijing, China. Your words supported the 
statement she made on behalf of all Americans, that if women are healthy 
and educated, free from violence, if they have a chance to work and earn 
as full and equal partners, their families will flourish. And when 
families flourish, communities and nations will flourish.
    We know that if we value our families, as we must, public policy 
must also support them. It must see to it that children live free of 
poverty with the opportunity of a good and decent education. If we value 
our families, we must let them know the dignity of work with decent 
wages. If we value our families, we must care for them across the 
generations from the oldest to the youngest.
    Your Holiness, it is most fitting that you have arrived to be with 
us today on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the champion of the 
poor, the defender of the defenseless. His prayer, carried to this day 
in the pockets, the purses, the billfolds of many American Catholics, 
and revered by many who are not Catholics, is a simple clarion to unity. 
It begins: ``Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is 
hatred, let me so love.'' Today, these words hold special meaning for 
us, for with God's help, we recently celebrated the advance of peace in 
the Middle East, and we are trying, earnestly, with your support, to 
knock on the door of peace in Bosnia.
    We see peace advancing in Northern Ireland, in Haiti, in Southern 
Africa. All this has been an answer to many, many prayers around the 
world, but many of them were led by you, Holy Father, and for that, you 
have the gratitude of all the American people.
    On the threshold of a new millennium, more than ever, we need your 
message of faith and family, community and peace. That is what we must 
work toward for millions of reasons, as many reasons as there are 
children on this Earth.
    It has been said that you can see the future by looking into the 
eyes of a child. Well, we are joined here today by 2,000 children, from 
the Archdiocese of Newark and surrounding parishes. Your Holiness, 
looking out at them now and into their eyes, we can see that the future 
is very bright indeed. For them and for all Americans, we thank you, 
Holy Father, for coming back to the United States, and we welcome you.

Note: The President spoke at 3:35 p.m. at Newark International Airport. 
In his remarks, he referred to Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, Arch- 

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bishop of Newark; Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan, Apostolic Pronuncio 
to the United States; William Cardinal Keeler, president, National 
Conference of Bishops; Father Paul Theroux, national coordinator for the 
Papal visit; Gov. Christine T. Whitman of New Jersey; and Mayor Sharpe 
James of Newark.