Pope on Romano Guardini: Man is truly free if he seeks the truth of God

The Christian vision of the world as a means of drawing closer to God’s truth. As a priest and theologian, Romano Guardini, spent his entire life on this inner journey, a journey that was interwoven with dialogue with others. Pope Benedict XVI, who was a young student of Guardini’s, spoke of the key points of the theologian’s reflections during an audience with participants at a Conference organised by the Berlin based "Romano Guardini" Foundation, dedicated to the analysis of the 'intellectual and spiritual heritage" of the Italian-German scholar, who died 40 years ago.

"A man of inner dialogue”, who was in love with "the truth of God and the truth about man" not as a mere exercise in abstraction, but as “a search that leads to choosing the good for the benefit of others”. This, the portrait painted by Pope Benedict of Romano Guardini a man, a priest, a theologian and a teacher whom he knew and admired. Born in Verona in 1885, shortly before his death in Munich Bavaria in 1968, Guardini defined the focus of his life as a journey of understanding of what " the Christian weltanschauung or vision of world" meant.

The Pope said that Guardini “wanted to know the truth of God and the truth about man. The specificity of the Christian vision consists in the fact that man knows he is in a relationship with God who precedes him and from whom he cannot detach himself”.

“Guardini was a man of dialogue”, continued Pope Benedict, “his works were born almost without exception from a dialogue, even if only an inner dialogue”. He believed that ethos, the foundation for our moral behaviour toward our neighbour, follows from man’s openness to God’s truth. “It is precisely because man encounters God that he can act for the common good”.

Pope Benedict also highlighted that as a teacher Guardini was attentive to young people. He “purified and deepened” their ideals of self-determination, responsibility, inner sincerity”, teaching them that "freedom is truth" and that man is true if he is so "according to his nature" which leads to God. Moreover, added the Pontiff, accompanying the young, Guardini also discovered a new approach to the liturgy:

"The rediscovery of the liturgy was for him the rediscovery of unity of body and spirit in the completeness of the whole man. In fact, the liturgical attitude is always both a physical and spiritual attitude".

Pope Benedict concluded that Guardini saw the university as the place for the search for truth. However, this can only be so if [the university] is free from exploitation and from any outside involvement be it political or of another nature. Today more than ever, in a world made of globalization and fragmentation, this necessity must be encouraged".Listen: