Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - This morning Pope Benedict XVI received in a special audience in the Sala Clementina in the Vatican, participants from fifty different countries at a Seminar organised by the Congregation for Catholic Education on the theme "The Cultural Heritage and Academic Values of the European University and the Attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area”. In his address in Italian the Pope recalled that the Seminar had reflected on “the contribution which European universities, rich in long tradition, can make to building the Europe of the third millennium keeping in mind that every cultural reality is both memory of the past and project for the future”. The Pope continued: “To this reflection the Church intends to make her own contribution as she has down through the centuries. Constant as she is in her concern for European centres of study and universities which "with the service of thought" handed on and continue to hand on the values of a special cultural heritage enriched by two millennia of humanistic and Christian experience”.
Looking at the "old" continent, the Holy Father said it was easy to note “the cultural challenges facing Europe today, committed as she is to rediscovering her identity which is not only of a political and economic order. Today as yesterday the fundamental question is anthropological. It is a question of ascertaining which understanding of man is at the basis of new projects”. In fact the Seminar asked itself at the service of what kind of man must the university be: “an individual bent on defending only his own interests or a person open to solidarity with others in the search for the real meaning of life and what is the relation between the human person, science and technology”. Pope Benedict XVI said: “We must reaffirm that the human person can never be sacrificed for success in science and technology: hence the importance of this anthropological question which for us, heirs to the humanistic tradition founded on Christian values, must be seen in the light of principles which inspired our civilisation and which found in European universities authentic workshops for research and in depth study”.
Recalling what John Paul II wrote in the post synodal exhortation “Ecclesia in Europa” (n.26) Pope Benedict XVI said: “The Church helped to diffuse and consolidate the values which rendered the European culture universal. However man cannot fully understand himself without God. This is why the religious dimension of human life cannot be overlooked as we undertake to build the Europe of the third millennium. Hence the unique role of the university: in the present situation the university must not be content with instructing, it must also fulfil its educational role at the service of the new generations appealing to the patrimony of ideals and values which marked previous millennia. In this way the university can help Europe to preserve its "soul", revitalising those Christian roots which were its origin.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 1/4/2006 - righe 37; parole 525)
