September 13, 2001

Ambassador Nicholson's Statement at the Presentation of his Credentials to Pope John Paul II.

Your Holiness:

It is an immense honor to present to you my credentials as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America.

I am very grateful to President Bush for the opportunity to represent him and my country to the Holy See. It is a gratifying responsibility and the highlight of my public service.

Shortly before leaving the United States, President Bush told me how profoundly moved he was by his recent visit with you at Castel Gandolfo and he also asked me to give you his warmest greetings.

President Bush has reinvigorated the giving spirit of my country through his Faith-Based Initiatives and his model of compassion for those among us who are less fortunate. The goal of his leadership is to leave no one behind. His concern for his fellow man is deep and sincere, Holy Father.

Having grown up in a family of seven children in a house without plumbing or electricity and frequently without enough food to eat, I have experienced the blessing of generosity that comes from neighbors and relatives. It helped my family to survive and stay together. Generosity is a trait of my country.

As I recall, your Holiness offered wise counsel to one of my predecessors, Ambassador Wilson, when he, as the first U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, presented his credentials to you in 1984. At that time you said that the renewed collaboration between the United States and the Holy See should mean:

“exerting common efforts to defend dignity and the rights of the human person – every human person, every man, woman and child on this Earth.”

We are working well together out of mutual respect, and with common goals, and I am confident we will succeed, by the grace of God, in our determined endeavors to obtain peace, justice, freedom, including religious freedom, economic opportunity and democracy for all mankind.

I feel blessed to participate in this collaboration between my country and the Holy See, which will soon enter its third decade, and which has been of significant spiritual and material benefit to the world. Still much more remains to be done. As you said to President Bush, Holy Father, we are in need of a “revolution of opportunity.” My country, and I personally, have thrived on the gifts of freedom and opportunity. We stand committed, like the Holy See, to bring both freedom and opportunity to those, who in your words, “seem cut off from them.”

The United States also looks forward to working closely with the Holy See on intercommunal reconciliation, especially in Africa and the Balkans, to ending the trafficking of human beings, to stemming the scourge of AIDS, and to bringing peace and prosperity to the Holy Land.

Your Holiness, on behalf of President Bush, I wish to stress our desire for close cooperation in these endeavors, and, in so doing, fulfilling what certainly must be God’s will, which is to help our fellow man achieve a life of peace and dignity, with the freedom to worship as he chooses.

Your Holiness, Thank you for allowing me to present to you my letter of credence.