ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS PAUL VI
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE 11th GENERAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE «UNION EUROPÉENNE FÉMININE»*

Thursday, 18 September 1975

Ladies,

We are happy to welcome you to our dwelling. Your visit is a testimony of your attachment to the Church of Christ, the indefatigable promoter of human and Christian values, without which society is likely to be exposed to serious risks!

We wish to congratulate you warmly on the work you have carried out in the last 20 years within the Women's European Union. You have certainly contributed to opening the way to wider recognition of the role of women in civic and political life in your various European countries. Your culture, your faith, your responsibilities, which are often very high, imposed this duty on you. You had the courage not to shirk it.

Your present Assembly will have revealed to you that there is still a great deal to be done to give woman's dignity and mission its full importance everywhere. This is true, and Woman's International Year will not be sufficient either. Be sure, however, that you are promoting the march of history. Others will certainly harvest what you have sown.

That is why, remaining on the pastoral plane that is ours, we exhort you to continue along the route on which you have started, with realism and patience, but also with the faith and charity of disciples of Christ. And the world and the Church will see woman assume, at the different levels of life in her country, her indispensable place in the field of thought, decision and action. And since we are addressing European women, who have certainly benefited from a civilization that has been impregnated with Christianity for a long time, but who are also concerned by the many alienations arising from modern life, we are not afraid to invite them – and through them all the women they represent – to make a greater effort than ever to safeguard the indefeasible rights of the human person, from conception to the last breath.

In this way, you will help to make more human our technological society. This is a deep need, the urgency of which is being felt more and more keenly.

It is with these sentiments that we impart our Apostolic Blessing to you and to all your dear ones.