Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Pavia (Fides Service) - In the afternoon of Sunday 22 April the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI went to the University of Pavia, “one of the oldest and most illustrious Italian universities”, where he met the local world of culture. “Every university has an inborn community vocation - the Pope said in his address to docents and students -, it is in fact a universitas, a community of docents and students committed to the search for the truth and the acquisition of higher cultural and professional competence. The centrality of the person and the community dimension are the two co-essential poles for the valid structuring of universitas studiorum”.
From this structure flow certain applications indicated by the Pope: “only by placing at the centre the person and valuing interpersonal dialogue and relations is it possible to overcome specialistic fragmentation of disciplines and to retrieve the unity perspective of knowledge… Secondly, it is fundamentally important for scientific research to be open to the existential request for meaning for the life of the person… Thirdly, only by valuing the person and interpersonal relations, can the didactic relationship become a relationship of education, a path of human maturation”. Referring to Saint Augustine, the University's co-patron saint, the Holy Father recalled that the saint's existential and intellectual journey reveal “fruitful inter-action between faith and culture. Saint Augustine was a man animated by a tireless desire to know the truth, to discover what is life, to know how to live and to know man. And precisely because of his passion for man he necessarily sought God, because only in the light of God can the greatness of man, the beauty of the adventure of being also fully appear”. Saint Augustine moved from a life based on research to a life given entirely to Christ and so a life for others, the Pope concluded, saying he hoped the saint would be a “model for dialogue between reason and faith, a model of broad dialogue, which alone can find the truth and so also peace”, and that the University of Pavia would "distinguish itself always for special attention for the person, its marked community dimension in scientific research and fruitful dialogue between faith and culture ”.
The Pope then left the University and went by Pope mobile to the Basilica of St Peter Ciel d’Oro, Golden Heavens, to preside the celebration of Vespers with the Augustian Fathers, diocesan priests, religious, consecrated persons and lay persons, during which the Pope incensed the Urn containting the earthly remains of Saint Augustine and lit a large candle which from now on will always burn at the side of the tomb. In his homily during this final event of his pastoral visit, the Holy Father explained the reason for his journey to Pavia, to venerate the earthly remains of Saint Augustine: “to pay homage on the part of the whole Catholic Church to one of her greatest 'fathers', and express my own devotion and gratitude to one who played a major part in my life as a theologian and a bishop, and I would say, even before as a man and a priest”. From the tomb of the “Doctor gratiae”, Pope Benedict XVI re-launched “a significant message for the life of the Church” which comes from the encounter between the Word of God and the personal experience of the Bishop of Hippo: Saint Augustine found in Jesus Christ, incarnate Word, the Lamb, immolated and risen, the revelation of the face of God who is Love. The Pope concluded: “Here, before the tomb of Saint Augustine I would ideally consign to the Church and to the world my first Encyclical, which contains precisely this central message of the Gospel: Deus caritas est, God is love” (1 Jn 4,8.16). This Encyclical, especially the first part, owes much to the thought of Saint Augustine, who was in love with the Love of God, of which he sang, meditated, preached in all his writings and above all bore witness to in his pastoral ministry”. Following the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and his Predecessors, Pope Benedict XVI said he was convinced “humanity today needs this essential message incarnated in Jesus Christ: God is love. From this everything must start and to this must everything lead … this then is the message which still today Saint Augustine repeats to the whole Church and especially to this diocesan community which preserves his relics with such veneration: Love is the soul of the life of the Church and her pastoral activity.” Discipleship of Christ “is first of all a question of love" the Pope said, urging the diocesan community to follow in the footsteps of Augustine announcing “frankly the "good news" of Christ, his proposal for life, his message of reconciliation and forgiveness”. Then, appreciating the pastoral goal to lead people to Christian maturity, the Pope said “the Church is not merely an organisation of collective events, or, the opposite, the sum of individuals who live a private religiosity. The Church is a community of persons who believe in the God of Jesus Christ and strive to live in the world the commandment of charity which He gave us”. After encouraging those present to “advance in personal and community witness of industrious love”, the Pope concluded: “Let us set out from here carrying in our hearts the joy of being the disciples of Love ”.
At the end of Vespers the Pope said goodbye to the Community of the Augustinian Fathers, and then stopped to say a few final words to joyous flag waving crowds including many families and children who had waited for hours outside the Basilica to catch a glimpse of the illustrious visitor, before returning by Pope mobile to nearby sports-ground to board helicopter for Milan and then a plane for Rome. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 24/4/2007 - righe 60, parole 883)
