VATICAN CITY. - Pope Benedict XVI today urged the Dominican Government to “definitively” eradicate corruption and to combat poverty and drug trafficking, and fortify honesty, transparency, judicial independence, social services and the environment.

The Pope, speaking to receive the credentials of the new Dominican ambassador in the Holy See, Victor Grimaldi, recognized the country’s recent accomplishments, "although it still has a long way to go to assure a worthy life for Dominicans and to eradicate poverty, drug trafficking, marginalization and violence."

He said everything that leads to stronger institutions is fundamental to society’s well-being, "which leans on the pillars such as a culture of honesty and transparency, judicial independence, the care and respect of the environment and the strengthening of the social, welfare, sanitary and education services for the entire population.”

"Those steps must be accompanied by a strong determination to eradicate corruption definitively, that entails so much suffering, especially for the poorest and defenseless members of society," said Benedict XVI.

The Pontiff affirmed that the Church "can never be confused with the political community," and instead it converges with the State to promote the dignity of the person and the search for society’s common wellbeing.

Benedicto XVI the Church tends its hands to the authorities to build a freer, more peaceful, just and fraternal civilization.

The Pope encouraged Dominicans to defend human values, stressing the recognition and prevalence of the dignity of the human being, respect for human life from the moment of conception to the natural death and the safeguard of the family as an institution based on marriage between a man and a woman, "because these are irreplaceable and unwavering elements of the social fabric."

Benedict XVI noted that it’s already been more than five centuries since the first mass was celebrated in the American continent, in the Dominican Republic, and praised the missionaries evangelical for their 500 years work in what John Paul II called the continent of hope, from the island of Hispaniola.

The Pontiff invoked the country’s patron saint Virgin of La Altagracia, and Santo Domingo de Guzmán, to bless "that beloved country and the Dominican people so close to the Pontiff’s heart."