Mr. Ambassador, Archbishop and other Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen:
This is our last stop on a wonderful trip in Europe that has, I believe, brought good results in our long and hard work in the achievement of peace. But to leave Europe with this wonderful welcome from the young people, whether they are in grade school or in college or all others, this is a welcome that I will never forget and a goodby that I will long remember.
I look out on the athletic field, and it brings back many wonderful memories. I wasn't good enough to play with all of you good, young athletes, but nevertheless, what you learn on that athletic field and what you learn in the fine school and what you learn from the leaders in your school and in your community will be invaluable to you as you mature, as you graduate and become active in vigorous parts of our society--whether in Europe or in the United States or elsewhere.
I thank you for being so many of you, for the warm welcome and the wonderful goodby. And I thank all of you for what you are doing for our country, your country, and the world as a whole. Thank you very, very much.
Note: The President spoke at 7:54 p.m. at the athletic field of the Oratorio di San Pietro, greeting American Embassy personnel and dependents, North American College faculty and students, and American clergy in Rome.
In his opening remarks, the President referred to John A. Volpe, U.S. Ambassador to Italy, and Archbishop Emanuele Clarizio, president of the Oratorio di San Pietro.
The President had stopped at the Oratorio di San Pietro following a visit with Pope Paul VI in the Library of the Papal Apartments in Vatican City.
Gerald R. Ford, Remarks on Greeting a Group of Americans in Rome. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/256892
