Vatican News
Pope Leo XIV opened the new academic year for ecclesiastical institutions of higher education with a Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on Thursday evening, bringing together Rome’s large Pontifical academic community.
In his homily, the Pope stressed that the beginning of a new academic year is about far more than simply returning to lectures and research. Study, he said, must become service, sustained by the Holy Spirit and by a “shared mission”.
Service to faith and truth
Pope Leo first invited students and teachers to “consider study as service to faith and truth, for your own good and for that of so many brothers and sisters for whom the Lord gave his life”.
“Reason, the act of asking questions and putting them into words in the light of the Word of God and the Tradition of the Church,” the Pope stressed, “are an essential part of the journey of faith in following Jesus Christ”.
As universities begin a new academic year, the Pope expressed the hope that “this new beginning may therefore be a truly ecclesial moment, in which being gathered around the Lord’s table nourishes our shared mission”.
A ‘call to intelligence’
The Pope then returned to the words of the Apostle Paul, read from the Letter to the Galatians during Mass in St Peter’s Basilica. They represent “a call to intelligence, memory and critical thinking”, he said. Intelligence, he continued, is “decisive for faith and mission”. Through this shared pursuit of a common goal, “no one will teach, study or carry out research solely for themselves, but with others, for others and, above all, with the Lord and for the Lord”.
Intelligence is also necessary for discerning and responding to the possible misuse of education, Leo warned: “In every age, there is no shortage of false teachers who exploit the religious fervour of many believers for their own ends, often leading them to radicalise certain aspects of the teaching they have received at the expense of the whole, which is Christ and his Gospel.”
Intelligence also means remembering, the Bishop of Rome continued, again drawing on the words of the Apostle Paul: “Intelligence must therefore become memory: not simply by juxtaposing data, as an algorithm now does more quickly than we can, but by remembering experiences, with the resonances that only the human soul can perceive, and by entering more deeply into contact with their goodness.”
Nurturing the gift of friendship and sharing
The Pope urged students and teachers to cherish the friendships formed at their institutions and in their classrooms. “Cultivate friendship at university,” the Pope urged, calling it a “precious gift” and “all the more so when it is lived out in the shared search for truth in Christ.”
“Integrate life into your studies and your studies into life, according to the logic of the Incarnation, without which Revelation falls silent.” This was the Holy Father’s advice: not to distance oneself from reality in order to understand it, but to bring God into academic research as well, and to share what nourishes us, stressing that “many people do not have the same opportunities for education that we have had. Let us open the door; let us not close ourselves off.”
The whole world as classmates
The Pope invited his listeners to “Look around you: the whole world is present in your lecture halls. Alongside you are people from Africa, Asia, America, Europe and Oceania. Do not be content simply to sit alongside one another: meet one another, talk to one another, listen to one another, share your experiences of the Church, pray together, spend time relaxing together, and form friendships that will accompany you throughout your lives.”
Very many priests, seminarians, religious and lay people from every continent come to Rome to study and conduct research at the various pontifical universities, colleges and institutes located in the Italian capital. In total, around 11,750 students are enrolled.
The Pope urged those gathered for the Mass on Thursday evening to make the most of their years in the Eternal City: “It was here that Peter professed his faith unto martyrdom. It was here that Paul, the great universal translator of the Christian experience for so many peoples, languages and cultures, completed his race while keeping the faith.” – Vatican News
