VATICAN - Discourse prepared by Benedict XVI for his visit to La Sapienza University

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Holy See has issued the discourse which the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI was due to give during a visit to the La Sapienza University in Rome on Thursday 17 January, a visit which was later cancelled. Here are excerpts of the discourse which has been issued in German and Italian. (The English is our translation.)
“For centuries this University has marked the path and life of the city of Rome, helping the best intellectual energies develop in every field of knowledge. Both in the time in which, after its foundation by Pope Boniface VIII, the institution depended directly from the ecclesiastical authorities, and later when the Studium Urbis developed as an institution of the Italian state, your academic community maintained a remarkable scientific and cultural level which sets it among the world's most prestigious universities.”
“What can and what should a Pope say on such an occasion? I have been invited to the Sapienza University, the oldest university in Rome … as the Bishop of Rome and so as such I must speak. Certainly, once the 'Sapienza' was the Pope's university but today it is a secular university with that autonomy which, on the basis of it founding concept, has always been part of the nature of the university, which should be connected exclusively with the authority of the truth. In its freedom from political and ecclesiastical authorities, the university finds its peculiar function, also for modern society which needs an institution of this nature.”
“What can and what should the Pope say when he encounters his city's university? Reflecting on this question it appeared to me to include two more, the clarification of which should lead to the answer. In fact we should ask ourselves: What is the nature and the mission of the Papacy? And again: what is the nature and the mission of a university?... The Pope is first of all the Bishop of Rome and as such, by virtue of succession to the Apostle Peter, he has an episcopal responsibility towards the whole Catholic Church … The Bishop - the Shepherd - is the person who tends to this community; the person who keeps it united on its journey to God, indicated according to the Christian faith by Jesus- and not only indicated: for us, He himself is the way. But this community to which the Bishop tends- whether large or small - lives in the world; its conditions and its journeying, its example and its word inevitably influence the rest of the human community as a whole… So the Pope, precisely because he is the Shepherd of his community, has become increasingly a voice of humanity's moral reasoning.”
“What is reason? How can a statement - especially a moral norm - show itself to be "reasonable"?... In the face of non-historic reason which attempts to build itself in a non-historic rationality, the wisdom of humanity as such- the wisdom of the great religious traditions - should be valued as a reality which cannot be thrown with impunity into the litter bin of the history of ideas”.
“The Pope speaks as a representative of a believing community in which through the centuries of its existence there developed a certain wisdom of life; he speaks as the representative of a community which safeguards within itself a treasure of knowledge and moral experience of importance for humanity: in this sense he speaks as a representative of moral reason”.
“And what is the university? What is its task? This is a giant question … I think we might say that the real, most profound origin of the university lies in a longing for knowledge which is common to man. He wants to know the meaning of everything which surrounds him. He wants the truth… the Christians of the early centuries… welcomed the faith not in a positivist manner, or as a means of escaping unsatisfied desires; they understood it as a dissolving of the mist of mythological religion to make way for the discovery of that God who is the creative Reason and at the same time Reason-Love. So asking oneself about reason with regard to the greatest God and His true nature and the real meaning of the human being was for them not a problematic form of a lack of religiosity, instead it was part of their being religious”.
“Man wants to know - he wants the truth. Truth has first of all to do with seeing, with understanding, with theory, as it is called by Greek tradition. But the truth is never only theory… However truth means more than knowledge: the knowledge of the truth aims to know what is good. This is also the sense of Socrates' questioning: What is the good which renders us real? The truth which makes us good, and goodness is true: this is the optimism which lives in the Christian faith because it has been granted a vision of the Logos, creative Reason which, in the incarnation of God, revealed Himself as Goodness, as Goodness itself.”
“In medieval theology there was profound discussion over the relation between theory and practice, on the proper relation between knowing and acting - a discussion which we need not develop here. In fact the medieval university with its four Faculties presents this correlation.”
“Pilate's question becomes inevitable: What is the truth? And how can it be recognised? If we refer this to "public reason", as does Rawls, there necessarily follows the question: What is reasonable? How is reason proved to be true reason? Whatever the case, on this basis it becomes evident that, in the search for the right to freedom, to the truth, to a just human society, diverse instances must be heard with respect for parties and interest groups, while not minimising their importance in any way ”.
“Unlike neo-platonic philosophies, in which religion and philosophy were inseparably interwoven, the Fathers presented the Christian faith as true philosophy, underlining that this faith corresponds to the demands of reason in its quest for the truth; that the faith is a "yes" to the truth, compared with mythical religions which had become simply customs. But then when the university was born, in the West those religions no longer existed, there was only Christianity, so it was necessary to underline in a new way the responsibility proper to reason, which is not absorbed by the faith … Philosophy must remain a quest for reason in its proper freedom and proper responsibility; it must see its limits and precisely in this way also its greatness and vastness. Theology must continue to draw from a treasure of knowledge which it did not invent, which is always greater than itself and which, since it can never be totally exhausted through reflection, precisely for this reason always give rise to new thought… Various things said by theologians in the course of history or put into practice by the ecclesial authorities, were proved false by history and today confuse us. But at the same time it is true that the lives of the saints, the history of humanism developed on the basis of the Christian faith, demonstrate the truth of this faith in its essential nucleus, rendering it thus also an instance for public reason”.
“In modern times new dimensions of knowledge have opened and these are valorised in the university above all in two major areas: first of all in natural sciences… secondly in historical and humanistic sciences… for humanity this development opened not only an immense measure of knowledge and power; but also great knowledge and recognition of human rights and dignity, and for this we should be truly grateful. But the journey of man can never be said to have been completed and the danger of a fall into inhumanity is never simply warded off: as we see in the panorama of history today! The danger of the western world - to speak only of this- is that man today, precisely in consideration of his great knowledge and power, may surrender in front of the question of the truth. And this means at the same time that reason, in the end, bows to the pressure of interests and to the lure of utility, forced to recognise it as the ultimate criteria… If however reason- attentive to its presumed presence- becomes deaf to the great message which comes from the Christian faith and its wisdom, it dries up like a tree whose roots no longer reach the waters which give it life. It loses the courage for the truth and becomes smaller rather than greater. Applied to our European culture this means: if it wishes to build itself only on the basis of the circle of its own arguments and to what convinces it at the moment- preoccupied with its secular nature- it cuts itself off from the roots from which it lives, instead of becoming purer and more reasonable, it splits and shatters.”
“And so I return to the point of departure. What does a Pope do or say at a university? Certainly he should not in an authoritative manner impose on others the faith which can only be given in freedom. Beyond his ministry as Shepherd in the Church and on the basis of the intrinsic nature of this pastoral ministry, his task is to keep sensitivity to the truth alive; to repeatedly invite reason to seek for the truth, for goodness, for God and on this path, lead it to perceive useful lights in the history of the Christian faith and so perceive Jesus Christ as the Light which illuminates history and helps us find the way to the future.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 17/1/2008; righe 103, parole 1515)