Pope visits Rome’s Gemelli Hospital

(May 04, 2012) Excluding truth and the transcendent from scientific debate and research has impoverished modern thought and weakened the intellect's ability to understand reality, Pope Benedict XVI said on Thursday. Modern scientific and technological discoveries are rightly a source of pride, but the "breakneck" speed of innovation sometimes has brought with it "disturbing consequences," the Pope told the faculty, doctors and students at Rome's Sacred Heart University, one of the biggest Catholic universities in the world. He visited the establishment on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the foundation of the Faculty of Agostino Gemelli Department of Medicine and Surgery, popularly known as Gemelli Hospital, where late Pope John Paul had been hospitalized several times. Addressing hundreds of people, including Italian government officials, Pope Benedict spoke about "the shadow of a crisis of thought" in the prevailing culture, where "reductionism and relativism" has led to the disappearance of the true meaning of things. "Almost blinded by technical potency, (humanity) forgets the fundamental question of meaning, thereby banishing the transcendental dimension to irrelevance," he said. The Pontiff urged that modern culture rediscover the meaning and role of the transcendent, saying the very same motivation behind scientific discovery "originates in the longing for God that dwells in the human heart.” “Essentially scientists aim - often unconsciously - to obtain that truth that can give meaning to life," he said, arguing that a positivistic culture, which excludes the question of God from scientific debate, leads to the decline of thought and the weakening of the intellect's ability" to understand reality. Reminding the faculty, doctors and students of Gemelli Hospital that healing isn't a job, but a mission, Pope Benedict encouraged the university to continue its work protecting human dignity and protecting life at all its stages.