(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday held an audience for three educational institutions
in Rome: the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and
the Pontifical Oriental Institute.
In his address, delivered in the Paul VI
Audience Hall, Pope Francis noted that the three Jesuit-run institutions share in
the desire “to serve as a soldier of God beneath the banner of the Cross … and to
serve the Lord alone and the Church, His spouse, under the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar
of Christ on earth” — and expression taken from the formula of the Society of Jesus.
For those working and studying at the Pontifical institutions, Pope Francis
emphasized the importance of learning to appreciate the ability to work and study
in the city, and the Church, of Rome. This unique opportunity allows one to appreciate
the roots of the faith in the past, and to be involved in the present, in “the actual
path of this Church which presides in charity, at the service of unity and universality.”
Those
who come to Rome also bring to the Church of Rome the variety of their own Churches
and cultures. This, the Pope said, is an inestimable richness of the Roman institutions.
“Your spiritual commitment, in teaching and in research, in study and in deeper formation,
will be all the more fertile and efficacious as it is more fully animated by the love
of Christ and of the Church, as the relationship between study and prayer is more
solid and harmonious.”
Theology and philosophy, he said, allow people “to acquire
convictions that structure and strengthen the intellect and illuminate the will –
but these studies will only be fruitful when done with an open mind, and on one’s
knees” in prayer.
Listen to Christopher Wells’ report:
Below,
please find the complete text of Pope Francis' address to the Pontifical Gregorian
University and to the associated Pontifical Biblical Institute and Pontifical Oriental
Institute:
Dear Cardinals, Venerable brothers in the Episcopate
and in the Priesthood, My dear brothers and sisters,
I welcome all of
you, professors, students, and staff of the Pontifical Gregorian University, of the
Pontifical Biblical Institute, and of the Pontifical Oriental Institute. I greet Father
Nicolás, the father delegate, and all the other superiors, as well as the Cardinals
and Bishops present. Thank you!
The Institutions to which you belong — joined
in a Consortium by Pope Pius XI in 1928 — are entrusted to the Society of Jesus, and
share the same desire “to serve as a soldier of God beneath the banner of the Cross
… and to serve the Lord alone and the Church, His spouse, under the Roman Pontiff,
the Vicar of Christ on earth” (Formula, 1). It is important that among them collaboration
and synergy be developed, keeping the historic memory and at the same time taking
charge of the present and looking to the future — the father general said, looking
to the future, “But it’s far away, eh? [Look] to the horizons” — looking to the future
with creativity and imagination, seeking to have a global vision of the situations
and real challenges and a shared manner of confronting them, finding new paths.
The
first aspect that I want to emphasize, thinking of your commitment, both as teachers
and as students, both personally and institutionally, is that of appreciating the
very place in which you find yourself working and studying, that is, the city
and above all the Church of Rome. Here there is a past and there is a present.
Here are the roots of faith: the memories of the Apostles and of the Martyrs; and
here is the ecclesial “today,” here is the actual path of this Church which presides
in charity, at the service of unity and universality. All of this should not be taken
for granted! It must be lived and appreciated, with a commitment that is partly institutional
and partly personal, left to the initiative of each one.
But at the same time
you bring the variety of your home Churches, of your own cultures. This is an inestimable
richness of the Roman institutions. It offers a precious occasion of growing in the
faith and of opening the mind and the heart to the horizons of catholicity. Within
these horizons the dialectic between the “centre” and the “peripheries” assumes its
proper form, the evangelical form, according to the logic of a God that reaches from
the centre coming from the peripheries in order to return to the peripheries.
The
other aspect that I want to share is that of the relationship between study and
the spiritual life. Your spiritual commitment, in teaching and in research, in
study and in deeper formation, will be all the more fertile and efficacious as it
is more fully animated by the love of Christ and of the Church, as the relationship
between study and prayer is more solid and harmonious. This is not something out-dated,
this is the centre, eh?
This is one of the challenges of our time: transmitting
the knowledge and offering a key for vital comprehension, not a heap of notions unconnected
to one another. There is need of a true evangelical hermeneutic for better understanding
life, the world, humanity, not of a synthesis but of a spiritual atmosphere of research
and certainty based on the truths of reason and of faith. Philosophy and theology
permit one to acquire the convictions that structure and strengthen the intelligence
and illuminate the will ... but this is fruitful only if it is done with an open mind
and on one’s knees. With an open mind and on one’s knees. The theologian who is satisfied
with his complete and conclusive thought is mediocre. The good theologian and philosopher
has an open, that is, an incomplete, thought, always open to the maius of God
and of the truth, always in development, according to the law that St. Vincent of
Lerins describes as follows: “annis consolidetur, dilatetur tempore sublimetur
aetate" (Commonitorium primum, 23 : PL 50, 668), [a thought that] is consolidated
over the years, expands over time, deepens with age. This is the theologian who has
an open mind. And the theologian who does not pray and who does not worship God ends
up sunk in the most disgusting narcissism. And this is an ecclesiastical illness.
The narcissism of theologians, of thinkers, and of the “just” does so much harm.
The
purpose of the studies in every Pontifical University is ecclesial. Research and studies
are integrated with personal and community life, with missionary commitment, with
fraternal charity and sharing with the poor, with care of the interior life in relationship
with the Lord. Your institutes are not machines for producing theologians and philosophers;
they are communities in which one grows, and that growing occurs in the family. In
the university family there is the charism of governance, entrusted to the superiors,
and there is the diaconia of the staff, which is indispensable for creating
the familiar environment in everyday life, and also for creating the attitude of humanity
and of concrete wisdom, that will make the students of today persons capable of building
humanity, of transmitting the truth in a human dimension, of understanding that if
one lacks the goodness and the beauty of belonging to a family of work one ends up
being an intellectual without talent, and ethicist without goodness, a thinker lacking
in the splendour of beauty and only “wearing the mask” (It: “truccato,” “made-up”)
of formalism. The daily, respectful contact with the hard work and witness and the
witness of the men and women who work in your Institutions will give you that dose
of realism that is so necessary so that your knowledge will be a human knowledge and
not a laboratory [knowledge].
Dear brothers, I entrust each of you, your studies
and your work, to the intercession of Mary, Sedes Sapientiae, of Saint Ignatius
of Loyola and of your other Patron Saints. I bless you from the heart, and I pray
for you. And you, please, pray for me too! Thank you!
And now, before I give
you my blessing, I invite you to pray to the Madonna, the Mother, that she might help
us and protect us.