Visit to the Catholic Institute (1 June 1980)

On Sunday, 1 June 1980, the Holy Father visited the “Catholic Institute” in Paris, where he spoke of the human sciences, which, despite their great discoveries in recent times, their horizons are limited by “their methodological models and their presuppositions.”

Monsignor the Rector,

1. I thank you warmly for your words of welcome, just as I thank from the bottom of my heart all those around me this morning for this welcome which touches me deeply. In my turn, I address my most cordial greetings to you, as well as to the high personalities who were kind enough to respond to your invitation and who honor this meeting with their presence. And I greet all the members of the university community whom I am particularly happy to meet in this place, heir to the most prestigious university tradition. In this setting so evocative and so steeped in history, you will allow me, I am sure, Monsignor, Ladies and Gentlemen, to rediscover my soul as a former professor and to address myself especially to those for whom the Catholic Institute exists: to its students.

2. Dear friends, your situation here in Paris invites us to reflect on the profound reasons for your presence in this Institute. The Parisian university world, illustrious in so many ways, is it not rich in skills of all kinds, literary and scientific? In how many centers could you not find, along with knowledge, the love of truth, the foundation of that intellectual freedom without which there can be, nowhere, neither university spirit nor University worthy of the name?

However, the magnificent scientific development of the modern era also has its weaknesses, not the least of which is the almost exclusive attachment to the natural sciences and their technical applications. Isn't humanism itself too often reduced to lovingly cultivating the great testimonies of the past without finding their roots? Finally, the human sciences, capital discoveries of our time, also carry within themselves, despite the horizons they open up to us, the limits inherent in their methodological models and their presuppositions.

At the same time, how many people are searching for a truth that can unify their lives?

Moving research, even when the appeal of the fundamental values ​​inscribed in the depths of the being is as if stifled by the influence of the environment; an often anxious search: it is “gropingly”, like the Athenians to whom Saint Paul spoke, that many seek the God whom we are announcing. Especially since the convulsions of our time show before our eyes, in many respects, the increasingly obvious failure of all forms of what has been called “atheistic humanism”.

3. I therefore do not believe I am mistaken in saying that students ask the Catholic Institute of Paris, at the same time as the various forms of knowledge offered to them and through them, personal access to another order of truth, a total truth about man, inseparable from the truth about God as he has revealed it to us, because it can only come from the Father of lights, from the gift of the Holy Spirit, he whom the Lord has assured us will lead us to the truth whole.

This is why, although your House has also distinguished itself in the academic world by the work of eminent men in the various branches of knowledge, it is not science as such that first justifies your membership of the Catholic Institute, but the light it helps to shed on your reasons for living . In this area, every man needs certainty. We Christians find it in the mystery of Christ who is. according to his own words, our way, our truth, our life. It is he who is at the start of our spiritual quest, he is the soul, he will be the end. Thus, religious knowledge and spiritual progress go hand in hand and, from this interior approach proper to those who seek God, Saint Augustine left us an incomparable formula: “Fecisti nos ad Te, et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in Te ”.

4. I have no doubt, dear friends, dear students, that I meet your deepest convictions here in thus evoking the reasons for your presence, but I am pleased to point out the irreplaceable specific role of your Institute and in addressing you, I am also thinking of the Catholic Universities of France, represented by their Rectors, and similar Institutes. Their specific task is to initiate intellectual research while responding to your thirst for certainty and truth. They allow you to existentially unify, in your intellectual work, two orders of realities that we too often tend to oppose as if they were antithetical, the search for truth and the certainty of already knowing the source of truth.

This over-hasty sketch will suffice to underline the importance I attach to Catholic education in general at its various levels, and in particular to Catholic university thought today. The Catholic vibe you want is far beyond just an environment. It includes the desire to form oneself in a Christian view of the world, a way of apprehending reality and also of designing your studies, however diverse they may be. I speak here, you understand it well, of a perspective which goes beyond the limits and the methods of particular sciences to reach the understanding that you must have of yourselves, of your role in society, of the meaning of your life.

5. Throughout the academic community, specialized philosophical and theological studies hold first place . It is normal that they are the heart of the Institute. It is normal and also necessary that these sections distinguish themselves by the seriousness of their work, their research and their publications. How happy I am to see theological education also addressed to more and more lay students, offering them the possibility of a Christian formation commensurate with their culture and their professional responsibilities!

For what are you looking for here, dear friends, if not the truth of faith ? It is she who inspires the love of the Church, to which the Lord has entrusted him; it is also what requires, by virtue of its internal existence, convinced and faithful adherence to the Magisterium, to which alone has been entrusted the task of interpreting the written and transmitted Word of God[ 1 ] and of defining the faith in accordance with this Revelation [ 2 ]. All theological work is at the service of faith. I know that it is a particularly demanding and meritorious service when it is thus accomplished: it has a capital place in the Church, and on its quality depends the Christian authenticity of the researchers themselves, of the students and finally of the generations to come.

“Let faith think”, according to the admirable words of Saint Augustine! In Paris, for a long time, you have been living in this ferment of thought, which can be so creative, as Saint Thomas brilliantly demonstrated in your ancient University, where he was the model of students before becoming the model of teachers. Today as in his time, it is with the same fidelity that we must build afresh, but always taking as a basis the Gospel, inexhaustible in its eternal novelty, and the doctrine that the Church has clearly formulated.

6. This is the pastoral commitment of the Catholic Institute. I am thinking first of the lay people who benefit from his teaching. I am happy to see them so numerous, so diverse. I find among you a bit of Africa, which is not even dearer now; Latin America, so strongly represented here, towards which I will soon be heading. I cannot enumerate all your countries, but I send you all my affectionate greetings. Dear friends, I hope that your studies at the Catholic Institute will allow you to form a deeply Christian and ecclesial conscience.

I rejoice to know that the prayer life is flourishing here. Isn't it like the spontaneous blossoming of the knowledge of the Lord? May she, with her grace, go ever stronger.

However, you cannot progress in it without one day asking the question in its broadest sense: “How shall I live for Christ?”. Questioning inseparable from personal awareness of the requirements of an authentic Christian life. Such questioning matures slowly and only gradually develops its vital force. It is she who contributes powerfully to orienting, according to your Christian convictions strengthened by your stay here, your family and professional life. I too pray for all of you who are listening to me, at the capital moment when you are interiorly orienting your life, so that you know how to welcome this question if it becomes more urgent, more immediate: “What must I do for the Lord?”. May he himself inspire you with the answer! By telling you this,

First beneficiaries of the training you receive, you cannot be unaware of what it commits you to. Monseigneur d'Hulst, founder of the Institut Catholique more than a century ago, said that it had been established “to throw Christian ferment into the thinking world”.

This creates obligations for you, for today and tomorrow, in your various countries and also beyond.

7. I have just alluded to the call of the Lord. I now turn to the priests, seminarians, men and women religious who continue their formation here. Know that you have a great place in my heart and in my prayers. Prepare yourself with ardor for the task of evangelization which awaits you. In France, the Church has long been a missionary Church, thereby anticipating the orientations of the Second Vatican Council.

Without going any further back, this missionary activity would amply suffice for the glory of the last century, a magnificent century in which the dynamism of the faith, far from allowing itself to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task, blossomed into a host of Christian families, priestly and religious vocations, institutions of all kinds which went well beyond the borders of France.

During the days I spent in the vibrant Churches of Africa, I witnessed with wonder the blossoming harvests, the fruit of the obscure and persevering work to which so many missionaries have sacrificed their lives. The Catholic Institute was founded at this time. According to his own vocation, he took his part in this work. Today more than ever, the harvest is great! You are preparing here to enter the field of the master of the harvest. Tomorrow, in France as in your respective countries: you know how much the Church is counting on you.

8. I said I was specifically addressing students. But now I also want to turn to all those who devote themselves here to their service, because they have understood the importance of this Church task and have often devoted most of their lives to it: first of all the whole of the teaching staff, which is particularly numerous and competent, to deal with the multiple specializations; the administrators of the Catholic Institute and all those who allow this House to live. I am happy to express my sincere gratitude to them.

9.Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends, students, I say to you in conclusion of this too brief visit: be faithful to the heritage received. Continue to be sensitive to the calls that come to you. Do not allow yourself to be suffocated by the weight of secularization, reject the ferment of doubt, the suspicion of the human sciences, the invading practical materialism... In this place steeped in history, I want to invite you to share my hope and tell you of my confidence. Here, the disciples of Saint Thérèse and Saint John of the Cross have left you the memory and the example of a life entirely consecrated to the contemplation of the one Truth. Here, priests who had already come from very diverse backgrounds, including several of your predecessors in the University of that time, gave witness to total fidelity. Here,

May the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Pentecost help you to clarify what is ambiguous, to warm what is lukewarm, to enlighten what is dark, to be before the world authentic and generous witnesses of the love of Christ, because “no one can live without love”.

I form the most fervent wishes for your teaching, for your studies, for your future.

With all my heart, I pray to the Lord to give you his light and to bless you.

 [ 1 ] Cfr. Dei Verbum , 10.

 [ 2 ] Cfr. Lumen Gentium , 25.
 

© Copyright 1980 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

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