In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Peace be with you!
Your Excellencies,
Dear friends,
I am very pleased to welcome you to Rome on the occasion of your pilgrimage during this Jubilee Year focused on the theological virtue of hope. I pray that as you visit the various holy sites, your hope in the Lord’s promises will be strengthened so that you can return home full of joy, and be ready to share your faith with those you encounter by proclaiming the Gospel in simple ways each day.
In a particular way, I greet the two recently ordained priests. Your generosity in saying “yes” to the Lord’s call to serve him and the Church as ordained ministers of the Gospel is indeed a sign of hope for the Christian community in your land. May your response to your vocation encourage many others to do likewise!
A further sign of hope is the raising of your local Church, last year, to the level of a Diocese, a century after its creation as an Apostolic Administration and almost 500 years after the disappearance of the ancient See of Tallinn. Your presence gives me the opportunity to congratulate you in person, and I encourage you to pray for one another, and especially for your Bishop, whom I warmly greet, so that your unity as a community of faith will always be nourished by the Lord and attract new believers. It is especially good that you are able, on behalf of all your brothers and sistersin Estonia, to give thanks here in Rome for this special grace bestowed by almighty God, and to celebrate the close links of the Church in your land with the Successor of Saint Peter. It is my hope that these links will be even stronger as a result of your pilgrimage.
I know, too, that among you are some members of the Estonian Lutheran Church, together with other non-Catholics, including a group of those who generously supported the organizing of the beatification of Archbishop Eduard Profittlich, which took place in the Freedom Square of your capital city just last month. Your ecumenical witness, which can only grow through setting out on pilgrimage together, is a welcome reflection of Blessed Eduard’s own witness, and is the very antithesis of the hatred that was so tragically visible during the Soviet regime’s persecution of the Church. Today, as you well know, we still see the logic of war being perpetrated in Europe, and I would ask you to pray fervently for peace, especially during the remainder of your time in Rome.
Dear friends, thank you for your visit. As you return to your homes, please know that you do so accompanied by my prayers. In a particular way, I ask you to bring my warm greetings to your family members and friends. Tell them that the Pope is praying for them!
With these sentiments, I entrust each of you to the intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church.
And may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, come down on you and remain with you for ever.
Amen.