Text of Pope Benedict XVI's Speech at the blessing of the foundation stone of Madaba
University, Jordan
(May 9, 2009) 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!