Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – "Today's environment is characterized by a troubling educational emergency ... which assumes a particular relevance to the task of those who are called to teaching ... The deep economic crisis, widespread throughout the world, with their root causes, have highlighted the need for a more decisive and bold investment in learning and education as a way to address the many challenges posed and to prepare the younger generation to build a better future." These are the words with which Pope Benedict XVI addressed teachers and students at the Libera Università Maria Santissima Assunta (LUMSA), received in audience on 12 November, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the university.
The Pope highlighted “the need to create links of thought in education, teaching different disciplines to work together and learn from each other. Faced with profound changes taking place, thus, there is a greater urgency to appeal to fundamental values to be transmitted, as an essential heritage to younger generations and, therefore, to examine what these values are. Academic institutions, therefore, must fact these pressing ethical questions.”
By highlighting how the current environment relies on an important role in Catholic Universities, "in fidelity to their specific identity and in an effort to provide a qualified service in the Church and society," Benedict XVI has reaffirmed the validity of the guidelines offered by John Paul II in the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, "a Catholic university is called upon to act with the Christian inspiration of individuals and the university community as such, with an endless reflection of wisdom, enlightened by faith and scientific research, with fidelity to the Christian message as it is presented by the Church, with the institutional commitment to serving the people of God and the human family in their journey towards our final destination." (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 13/11/2009)
