(Official petition presented to Pope John Paul II on September 25, 2000.)

Holy Father,

For centuries now, Saint Thomas More, martyr, has inspired the sincere veneration of the Christian people. He is also one of the saints whose life and works receive most attention in the worlds of culture and politics, an attention reflected in numerous scholarly studies and an ever-increasing interest both in academia and in the world of affairs. The scholarly bibliography is constantly growing and has a number of remarkable characteristics; above all, it includes authors from different churches and Christian communities (Sir Thomas More is placed in the liturgical calendar of the Anglican Church in England as a "martyr"), different religious faiths and even authors who are agnostic. This is a sign of truly universal appeal. It reflects, moreover, an admiration which transcends the specific contributions that Saint Thomas More made in the various fields in which he worked—as humanist, apologist, judge, legislator, diplomat and statesman—and focuses on the man himself: the idea that holiness is the fullness of humanity appears, in this case, quite tangibly true.