Meeting with the world of Catholic Education in the Sports Arena of St Mary’s University
College in Twickenham (London Borough of Richmond, 17 September 2010)
Celebration of Catholic Education St Mary’s University College, Twickenham Address
of the Holy Father to pupils
17 September 2010
Dear Brothers and
Sisters in Christ, Dear young friends, First of all, I want to say how glad I am
to be here with you today. I greet you most warmly, those who have come to Saint
Mary’s University from Catholic schools and colleges across the United Kingdom, and
all who are watching on television and via the internet. I thank Bishop McMahon for
his gracious welcome, I thank the choir and the band for the lovely music which began
our celebration, and I thank Miss Bellot for her kind words on behalf of all the young
people present. In view of London’s forthcoming Olympic Games, it has been a pleasure
to inaugurate this Sports Foundation, named in honour of Pope John Paul II, and I
pray that all who come here will give glory to God through their sporting activities,
as well as bringing enjoyment to themselves and to others. It is not often that
a Pope, or indeed anyone else, has the opportunity to speak to the students of all
the Catholic schools of England, Wales and Scotland at the same time. And since I
have the chance now, there is something I very much want to say to you. I hope that
among those of you listening to me today there are some of the future saints of the
twenty-first century. What God wants most of all for each one of you is that you
should become holy. He loves you much more than you could ever begin to imagine,
and he wants the very best for you. And by far the best thing for you is to grow
in holiness. Perhaps some of you have never thought about this before. Perhaps
some of you think being a saint is not for you. Let me explain what I mean. When
we are young, we can usually think of people that we look up to, people we admire,
people we want to be like. It could be someone we meet in our daily lives that we
hold in great esteem. Or it could be someone famous. We live in a celebrity culture,
and young people are often encouraged to model themselves on figures from the world
of sport or entertainment. My question for you is this: what are the qualities you
see in others that you would most like to have yourselves? What kind of person would
you really like to be? When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not
to be content with second best. I am asking you not to pursue one limited goal and
ignore all the others. Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good
in the world, but on its own, it is not enough to make us happy. Being highly skilled
in some activity or profession is good, but it will not satisfy us unless we aim for
something greater still. It might make us famous, but it will not make us happy.
Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is
that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places.
The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have
the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in
worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. Only he can satisfy
the deepest needs of our hearts. Not only does God love us with a depth and an
intensity that we can scarcely begin to comprehend, but he invites us to respond to
that love. You all know what it is like when you meet someone interesting and attractive,
and you want to be that person’s friend. You always hope they will find you interesting
and attractive, and want to be your friend. God wants your friendship. And once
you enter into friendship with God, everything in your life begins to change. As
you come to know him better, you find you want to reflect something of his infinite
goodness in your own life. You are attracted to the practice of virtue. You begin
to see greed and selfishness and all the other sins for what they really are, destructive
and dangerous tendencies that cause deep suffering and do great damage, and you want
to avoid falling into that trap yourselves. You begin to feel compassion for people
in difficulties and you are eager to do something to help them. You want to come
to the aid of the poor and the hungry, you want to comfort the sorrowful, you want
to be kind and generous. And once these things begin to matter to you, you are well
on the way to becoming saints. In your Catholic schools, there is always a bigger
picture over and above the individual subjects you study, the different skills you
learn. All the work you do is placed in the context of growing in friendship with
God, and all that flows from that friendship. So you learn not just to be good students,
but good citizens, good people. As you move higher up the school, you have to make
choices regarding the subjects you study, you begin to specialize with a view to what
you are going to do later on in life. That is right and proper. But always remember
that every subject you study is part of a bigger picture. Never allow yourselves
to become narrow. The world needs good scientists, but a scientific outlook becomes
dangerously narrow if it ignores the religious or ethical dimension of life, just
as religion becomes narrow if it rejects the legitimate contribution of science to
our understanding of the world. We need good historians and philosophers and economists,
but if the account they give of human life within their particular field is too narrowly
focused, they can lead us seriously astray. A good school provides a rounded
education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this,
should help all its students to become saints. I know that there are many non-Catholics
studying in the Catholic schools in Great Britain, and I wish to include all of you
in my words today. I pray that you too will feel encouraged to practise virtue and
to grow in knowledge and friendship with God alongside your Catholic classmates.
You are a reminder to them of the bigger picture that exists outside the school, and
indeed, it is only right that respect and friendship for members of other religious
traditions should be among the virtues learned in a Catholic school. I hope too that
you will want to share with everyone you meet the values and insights you have learned
through the Christian education you have received.Dear friends, I thank you for your
attention, I promise to pray for you, and I ask you to pray for me. I hope to see
many of you next August, at the World Youth Day in Madrid. In the meantime, may God
bless you all!