Text of Pope Benedict XVI's Speech at Blessing Ceremony for Foundation Stone of Madaba
University, Jordan
Dear Brother Bishops, Dear friends,
It is for me a great joy to bless this
foundation stone of the University of Madaba. I thank His Beatitude Archbishop Fouad
Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, for his kind words of welcome. I wish to extend
a special greeting of recognition to His Beatitude, Emeritus Patriarch Michel Sabbah,
to whose initiative and efforts, together with those of Bishop Salim Sayegh, this
new institution owes so much. I also greet the civil authorities, the Bishops, priests,
religious and faithful and all who accompany us for this important ceremony. The
Kingdom of Jordan has rightly given priority to the task of extending and improving
education. I am aware that in this noble mission Her Majesty Queen Rania is especially
active and her commitment is an inspiration to many. As I pay tribute to the efforts
of so many people of good will committed to education, I note with satisfaction the
competent and expert participation of Christian institutions, especially Catholic
and Orthodox, in this overall effort. It is against this background that the Catholic
Church, with the support of the Jordanian authorities, has sought to further university
education in this country and elsewhere. This present initiative also responds to
the request of many families who, pleased with the formation received in schools run
by religious authorities, are demanding an analogous option at the university level. I
commend the promoters of this new institution for their courageous confidence in good
education as a stepping-stone for personal development and for peace and progress
in the region. In this context the University of Madaba will surely keep in mind
three important objectives. By developing the talents and noble attitudes of successive
generations of students, it will prepare them to serve the wider community and raise
its living standards. By transmitting knowledge and instilling in students a love
of truth, it will greatly enhance their adherence to sound values and their personal
freedom. Finally, this same intellectual formation will sharpen their critical skills,
dispel ignorance and prejudice, and assist in breaking the spell cast by ideologies
old and new. The result of this process will be a university that is not only a platform
for consolidating adherence to truth and to the values of a given culture, but a place
of understanding and dialogue. While assimilating their own heritage, young Jordanians
and other students from the region will be led to a deeper knowledge of human cultural
achievements, will be enriched by other viewpoints, and formed in comprehension, tolerance
and peace. This “broader” education is what one expects from institutions of higher
learning and from their cultural milieu, be it secular or religious. In fact, belief
in God does not suppress the search for truth; on the contrary it encourages it.
Saint Paul exhorted the early Christians to open their minds to “all that is true,
all that is noble, all that is good and pure, all that we love and honor, all that
is considered excellent or worthy of praise” (Phil 4:8). Religion, of course, like
science and technology, philosophy and all expressions of our search for truth, can
be corrupted. Religion is disfigured when pressed into the service of ignorance or
prejudice, contempt, violence and abuse. In this case we see not only a perversion
of religion but also a corruption of human freedom, a narrowing and blindness of the
mind. Clearly, such an outcome is not inevitable. Indeed, when we promote education,
we proclaim our confidence in the gift of freedom. The human heart can be hardened
by the limits of its environment, by interests and passions. But every person is
also called to wisdom and integrity, to the basic and all-important choice of good
over evil, truth over dishonesty, and can be assisted in this task. The call
to moral integrity is perceived by the genuinely religious person, since the God of
truth and love and beauty cannot be served in any other way. Mature belief in God
serves greatly to guide the acquisition and proper application of knowledge. Science
and technology offer extraordinary benefits to society and have greatly improved the
quality of life of many human beings. Undoubtedly this is one of the hopes of those
who are promoting this University, whose motto is Sapientia et Scientia. At the same
time the sciences have their limitations. They cannot answer all the questions about
man and his existence. Indeed the human person, his place and purpose in the universe
cannot be contained within the confines of science. “Humanity’s intellectual nature
finds its perfection ultimately in wisdom, which gently draws the human mind to seek
and to love what is true and good” (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 15). The use of scientific
knowledge needs the guiding light of ethical wisdom. Such is the wisdom that inspired
the Hippocratic Oath, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Convention
and other laudable international codes of conduct. Hence religious and ethical wisdom,
by answering questions of meaning and value, play a central role in professional formation.
And consequently, those universities where the quest for truth goes hand in hand with
the search for what is good and noble, offer an indispensable service to society.
With these thoughts in mind, I encourage in a special way the Christian students
of Jordan and the neighboring regions, to dedicate themselves responsibly to a proper
professional and moral formation. You are called to be builders of a just and peaceful
society composed of peoples of various religious and ethnic backgrounds. These realities
– I wish to stress once more – must lead, not to division, but to mutual enrichment.
The mission and the vocation of the University of Madaba is precisely to help you
participate more fully in this noble task. Dear friends, I wish to renew my congratulations
to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and my encouragement to all who have taken
this project to heart, together with those who are already engaged in the educational
apostolate in this nation. May the Lord bless you and sustain you. I pray that your
dreams may soon come true, that you may see generations of qualified men and women
Christian, Muslim and of other religions, taking their place in society, equipped
with professional skills, knowledgeable in their field, and educated in the values
of wisdom, integrity, tolerance and peace. Upon you and upon all the future students
and staff of this University and their families, I invoke Almighty God’s abundant
blessings!