Mr. President,
Members of the Academy,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
1. The programme of work which your President has presented, and with
which I was already acquainted before this meeting, demonstrates the great
vitality of your Academy, its interest in the most acute problems of
modern science and its interest in the service of humanity. On the
occasion of a previous solemn session I have already had the opportunity
to tell you how highly the Church esteems pure science: it is "a good,
worthy of being loved, for it is knowledge and therefore perfection of man
in his intelligence ... It must be honoured for its own sake, as an
integral part of culture" (Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences,
10 November 1979).
Before speaking of the questions which you have already discussed
during these days and those which you now propose to study, permit me to
express my warm thanks to your illustrious President, Professor Carlos
Chagas, for the congratulations which he kindly expressed in the name of
your whole Assembly for my having regained my physical strength, thanks to
the merciful Providence of God and the skill of the doctors who have cared
for me. And I am pleased to avail myself of the occasion to express my
particular gratitude to the Members of the Academy who from all parts of
the world have sent me their good wishes and assured me of their prayers.
2. During this Study Week, you are dealing with the subject of
"Cosmology and Fundamental Physics", with the participation of scholars
from the whole world, from as far away as North and South America and
Europe and China. This subject is linked to themes already dealt with by
the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the course of its prestigious
history. Here I wish to speak of the session on microseisms, stellar
clusters, cosmic radiation and galactic nuclei, sessions' which have taken
place under the presidency of Father Gemelli, Monsignor Lemaitre and also
Father O'Connell, to whom I address my most fervent good wishes and whom I
pray the Lord to assist in his infirmity.
Cosmogony and cosmology have always aroused great interest among
peoples and religions. The Bible itself speaks to us of the origin of the
universe and its make-up, not in order to provide us with a scientific
treatise, but in order to state the correct relationships of man with God
and with the universe. Sacred Scripture wishes simply to declare that the
world was created by God, and in order to teach this truth it expresses
itself in the terms of the cosmology in use at the time of the writer. The
Sacred Book likewise wishes to tell men that the world was not created as
the seat of the gods, as was taught by other cosmogonies and cosmologies,
but was rather created for the service of man and the glory of God. Any
other teaching about the origin and make-up of the universe is alien to
the intentions of the Bible, which does not wish to teach how heaven was
made but how one goes to heaven.
Any scientific hypothesis on the origin of the world, such as the
hypothesis of a primitive atom from which derived the whole of the
physical universe, leaves open the problem concerning the universe's
beginning. Science cannot of itself solve this question: there is needed
that human knowledge that rises above physics and astrophysics and which
is called metaphysics; there is needed above all the knowledge that comes
from God's revelation. Thirty years ago, on 22 November 1951, my
predecessor Pope Pius XII, speaking about the problem of the origin of the
universe at the Study Week on the subject of microseisms organized by the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences, expressed himself as follows: "In vain
would one expect a reply from the sciences of nature, which on the
contrary frankly declare that they find themselves faced by an insoluble
enigma. It is equally certain that the human mind versed in philosophical
meditation penetrates the problem more deeply. One cannot deny that a mind
which is enlightened and enriched by modern scientific knowledge and which
calmly considers this problem is led to break the circle of matter which
is totally independent and autonomous—as
being either uncreated or having created itself—and
to rise to a creating Mind. With the same clear and critical gaze with
which it examines and judges the facts, it discerns and recognizes there
the work of creative Omnipotence, whose strength raised up by the powerful
uttered billions of years ago by the creating
Mind, has spread through the universe, calling into existence, in a
gesture of generous love, matter teeming with energy".
3. Members of the Academy, I am very pleased with the theme that you
have chosen for your Plenary Session beginning on this very day: "The
Impact of Molecular Biology on Society". I realize the advantages that
result—and
can still result—from
the study and applications of molecular biology, supplemented by other
disciplines such as genetics and its technological application in
agriculture and industry, and also, as is envisaged, for the treatment of
various illnesses, some of a hereditary character.
I have firm confidence in the world scientific community, and in a very
special way in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and I am certain that
thanks to them biological progress and research, as also all other forms
of scientific research and its technological application, will be carried
out in full respect for the norms of morality, safeguarding human dignity,
freedom and equality It is necessary that science should always be
accompanied and controlled by the wisdom that belongs to the permanent
spiritual heritage of humanity and that takes its inspiration from the
design of God implanted in creation before being subsequently proclaimed
by his Word.
Reflection that is inspired by science and by the wisdom of the world
scientific community must enlighten humanity regarding the consequences—good
and bad—of
scientific research, and especially of that research which concerns man,
so that, on the one hand, there will be no fixation on anticultural
positions that retard the progress of humanity, and that on the other hand
there will be no attack on man's most precious possession: the dignity of
his person, destined to true progress in the unity of his physical,
intellectual and spiritual well-being.
4. There is another subject which, during these days, has occupied the
thoughts of some of you, eminent scholars from different parts of the
world who have been brought together by the Pontifical Academy of
Sciences: the question of parasitic diseases, diseases which strike the
poorest countries of the world and are a serious obstacle to the
development of man in the harmonious framework of his physical, economic
and spiritual well-being. The efforts to eliminate, as far as possible,
the serious harm caused by parasitic diseases to a considerable part of
humanity are inseparable from the efforts which should be made for the
socioeconomic development of those same peoples. Human beings normally
need a basic minimum of health and material goods in order to be able to
live in a manner worthy of their human and divine vocation. It is for this
reason that Jesus turned with infinite love to the sick and infirm, and
that he miraculously cured some of the diseases about which you have been
concerned in these past days. May the Lord inspire and assist the work of
the scientists and doctors who dedicate their research and profession to
the study and treatment of human infirmities, especially those which are
the most grave and humiliating
5. In addition to the question of parasitic diseases, the Academy has
been studying the question of a scourge of catastrophic dimensions and
gravity that could attack the health of humanity if a nuclear conflict
were to break out. Over and above the death of a considerable part of the
world's population, a nuclear conflict could have incalculable effects on
the health of the present and future generations.
The multi-disciplinary study which you are preparing to undertake
cannot fail to be for the Heads of State a reminder of their tremendous
responsibilities, and arouse in all humanity an ever more intense desire
which comes from the most profound depths of the human heart, and also
from the message of Christ who came to bring peace to people of good will.
By virtue of my universal mission, I wish to make myself once more the
spokesman of the human right to justice and peace, and of the will of God
who wishes all people to be saved. And I renew the appeal that I made at
Hiroshima on February 25 of this year: "Let us pledge ourselves to peace
through justice; let us now take a solemn decision, that war will never be
tolerated or sought as a means of resolving differences; let us promise
our fellow human beings that we will work untiringly for disarmament and
the banishing of all nuclear weapons; let us replace violence and hate
with confidence and caring".
6. Among the efforts to be made in order to secure the peace of
humanity, there is the effort to ensure for all peoples the energy needed
for their peaceful development. The Academy concerned itself with this
problem during its Study Week last year. I am happy to be able to award
today the Pius XI Gold Medal to a scientist who has contributed in an
outstanding way, by his research in the field of photo-chemistry, to the
utilization of solar energy: Professor Jean-Marie Lehn of the College de
France and the University of Strasbourg, and I express to him my most
cordial congratulations.
To all of you, I offer my sincere compliments on the work which you are
doing in scientific research. I pray that Almighty God will bless you,
your families, your loved ones, your collaborators, and the whole of
humanity, for whom in diverse yet converging ways you and I are carrying
out the mission which has been entrusted to us by God.
From Discourses of the Popes from Pius XI to John
Paul II to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences 1936-1986 (Vatican City:
Pontifica Academia Scientiarum, 1986), 161-164.
