Pope says Deeper Study Key to Dialogue with Modern Cultures
(28 Jan 10 - RV)This morning, Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, Benedict XVI received the
300 people who yesterday participated in the annual public session of the pontifical
academies. The event was
attended by representatives from the following institutions: the Academy of St. Thomas
Aquinas, the Theological Academy, the Academy of Mary Immaculate, the International
Marian Academy, the Academy of Fine Arts and Literature "dei Virtuosi al Pantheon",
the Roman Academy of Archaeology and the "Cultorum Martyrum" Academy. Having praised
the "glorious past" of these institutions, the Pope noted how at the present time
"contemporary culture, and even more so believers themselves, continually petition
the Church to concentrate her reflections and actions in those fields in which new
problems emerge. These", he told his listeners, "are also sectors in which you operate". "You
are called", the Holy Father went on, "to make your qualified, competent and enthusiastic
contribution to ensure that all the Church, and particularly the Holy See, is able
to exploit the appropriate opportunities, languages and means necessary to enter into
dialogue with modern cultures, and provide an effective answer to the questions and
challenges which face her in the various areas of human knowledge and experience. "As
I have said before", he added, "modern culture is deeply marked, both by relativism
and subjectivism, and by methods and approaches that are sometimes superficial, even
banal. These harm the seriousness of research and reflection and, as a consequence,
also of dialogue, exchange and interpersonal communication. It is, then, urgently
necessary to recreate the conditions essential for ... deeper study and research,
so as to make dialogue and exchange on the various problems more reasonable and effective,
with a view to shared growth and a formation that promotes man in his entirety and
completeness". "This task is particularly urgent in the field of forming candidates
for Holy Orders, as prescribed by the Year for Priests and confirmed by the happy
decision to dedicate your annual public session to" the formation of the clergy. "The
philosophy and witness of St. Thomas Aquinas encourage us to dedicate careful study
to emerging problems, in order to find appropriate and creative answers. Trusting
in the possibilities of 'human reason', and with complete fidelity to the immutable
'depositum fidei', we must ... always draw from the richness of Tradition in a constant
search for the 'truth of things'. To this end it is important that pontifical academies,
today more than ever, become living and vivacious institutions, capable of acute perception,
both as regards the demands of society and culture, and the needs and expectations
of the Church. They must do so in order to offer an appropriate and valid contribution
and so promote, with all the energies and means at their disposal, an authentic Christian
humanism".