Words on His Visit to the Catholic Institute of West Africa (11 May 1980)

On Sunday, 11 May 1980, the Holy Father addressed the Rector, Board of Directors, personnel, and students of the Catholic Institute of West Africa (ICAO), located in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

I must thank you, Mr. Chancellor, and thank the members of this center. With all simplicity I tell you that I feel at home among you. I often ask myself: when the Lord instituted the College of the Twelve Apostles, did he not at the same time institute a seminary, a school, a theological faculty, a university? Of course not; but there is something to it, since it is true that at the end of the years spent with them, he told them "teach". This means that they should know how to teach. To know how to teach, you have to start being disciples, going to a center, learning to study. The system that we have today, the school system, the seminary, the university, did not yet exist. There was a fundamental school, a school that is at the base of all existing schools today. Elemental school,

I will tell you a conviction of mine; I have been acquiring it throughout an experience that we bishops of the contemporary Church had, and it has been almost twenty years since. The cardinals and bishops of the Council knew it well, we knew that we would come to find something new in the school of the Spirit. And thanks to this conviction we have obeyed the Lord who acted by his Spirit in this school. We too can give the Church of our time, the Church of our time, new teachings, the teachings of yesterday, of the beginning, of today and of the future. I tell you this to pay tribute to the work you do here. I am closely linked to the university institution, to the theology faculty; and I am thinking above all of the theology faculty in Cracow, which is somewhat similar to yours, being the oldest in the nation. But in this case it is an antiquity of six centuries. When I see you here I think of the teachers and students of the fourteenth century who formed the new generation of students, disciples and teachers of the Gospel and of humanity of those times. You come after them, and the Pope comes from that generation. There he was a disciple and teacher, and now Pope; and this thanks to the vocation of the Spirit, but also thanks to those teachings, to that university, thanks to that faculty. There he was a disciple and teacher, and now Pope; and this thanks to the vocation of the Spirit, but also thanks to those teachings, to that university, thanks to that faculty. There he was a disciple and teacher, and now Pope; and this thanks to the vocation of the Spirit, but also thanks to those teachings, to that university, thanks to that faculty.

 It seems to me that I have told you the most important thing. I have told you without preparation, without written text; It has come from the bottom of my heart. And saying this, I bless you and I bless your work, your efforts, which are both scientific and apostolic. It is necessary that your science and teachings be scientific, but they must become apostolic at the same time, because the world needs apostles, and the apostles need science. There is an urgent need for good theology, for good philosophical bases, and contemporary science is also needed; but it is necessary that everything be apostolic and, I would even say, rooted in the heart of divinity, rooted in the Heart of Jesus Christ Himself, because He is the light of the world; and the world needs science, scientific progress, but above all it needs light,

I bless you with all my heart, together with the cardinals and bishops present; because we find ourselves in a moment in the Church in which collegiality responds to the call of the Lord. She has called all the Apostles, and from among them she has named Peter.

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