Message to the University World (7 March 1983)

On 7 March 1983, the Holy Father sent a Message to the University World of Guatemala City, speaking of the “special relationships that unite the Church with the University.”

Dear Rectors,
Professors,
dear University Students

1. In the context of my trip to Central America, Belize and Haiti, I wish to address this written message to you, so that we can reflect together on the special relationships that unite the Church with the University. She also wants to know proof of the great interest that the Church dedicates to the indispensable mission of the University in today's society, especially in this age so attentive to the integral progress of man.

As you well know, it was in Europe that the University was born within the Church, as an almost natural extension of the functions that the Church itself exercised in the field of teaching, education, research and cultural service. Starting from modest schools, which emerged around cathedrals and monasteries, faculties and higher education centers gradually developed, which the Church supported, and soon established and confirmed in its academic prerogatives and autonomy. Little by little, prestigious university communities developed, such as those in Bologna, Paris, Oxford, Prague, Krakow, Salamanca, Coimbra; who played a commendable role in the maturation of European culture, which would not have been what it is without their impulse and contribution.

2. At a time when Europe's action extended to these lands, the Church wanted universities or higher schools to be created, to respond to the needs of the New World. This is how so many Universities were established, many of which were famous: those of Santo Domingo, Lima, Mexico, Sucre, Quito, the Xaveriana of Bogotá, the one of Córdoba and the University of São Carlos, of Guatemala, from which other later universities were nurtured. There, excellent teaching was provided in both theology and philosophy, literature, arts, humanities, medicine, law, mathematics, astronomy, botany. And at the same time, prestigious libraries were created in the main university centers on the Continent.

3. My intention; however, it is not to apologize for a period that, as in all eras, experienced its successes and difficulties, but to highlight the role that the Church sought to fulfill in this secular experience, through universities.

From the beginning she aspired to cultivate sacred and profane sciences, to deepen the work of God and serve society. Universities thus trained great men of the Church, doctors, educators, experts in law and jurisprudence who were at the service of the community. In a word, Universities contributed to raising, in each place, a class of highly qualified people to satisfy the specific needs of societies on the New Continent.

4. The Church often recalled that the function of the University was to defend man, his rights and his freedom. It is enough to evoke here the prophetic voice of the great Bishop Francisco de Marroquin who, a hundred years before the creation of the prestigious San Carlos University in Guatemala, proclaimed the Christian and human mission of the University and did everything possible to facilitate its future creation, even leaving a donation for this purpose.

For him, the University should be dedicated to the progress of divine and human sciences, and to the defense of human rights. This spirit, constantly remembered by the church, contributed to the blossoming of an original culture, open to the service of Latin American men and the promotion of their own identity. These Universities largely come from the men and women who formed the Latin American nations who defined autonomy and cultural vocation, always affirming the spiritual community of the people of this Continent.

5. These Universities contributed to the spread of a humanism rooted in the rich cultural humus of your regions. Let us remember, in the scientific field, José Celestino Mutis, from the Colégio-Mor do Rosário in Bogotá, a great botanist and specialist in the astronomical discoveries of Copernicus. Let us also think about the great poet and Latinist Rafael Lander, from Guatemala.

And how can we not remember the explorations of Christian missionaries and researchers into the great pre-Columbian civilizations, such as that of the Mayans, from which impressive monuments, cosmology, mathematical and astronomical knowledge, as well as the profound sense of the sacred were later discovered. Thus, these cultures are better understood and studied today, and the influence that these ancient civilizations had on you is recognized.

6. It can therefore be said that university history in your countries has been linked to the life of the Church for a long time. If circumstances and political developments could soon break these ties and give rise to reciprocal misunderstandings, it must however be recognized that there is a real connaturality between the University and the Church.

The University and the Church consecrate themselves, in fact, each in its own way, to the search for truth, the progress of the spirit, universal values, the understanding and integral development of man, the exploration of the mysteries of the universe. In a word, the University and the Church want to serve man disinterestedly, seeking to respond to his highest moral and intellectual aspirations. The Church teaches that the human person, created in the image of God, has a unique dignity, which must be defended against all threats that, especially today, end up destroying man in his physical and moral, individual and collective being. The Church addresses current university students in a very particular way to tell them: let us try together to defend the man in himself, whose dignity and honor are seriously threatened. The University, which by vocation is a disinterested and free institution, presents itself as one of the few institutions in modern society capable of defending man for himself with the Church; without subterfuge, without any other pretext and solely because man has only one dignity and deserves to be esteemed for himself.

This is the superior humanism that the Church teaches. The one it offers you in your noble and urgent task, university students and educators.

Allow me, therefore, to urge you to use all the legitimate means at your disposal: teaching, research, information, dialogue with the public, to carry out your humanist mission, becoming artisans of this civilization of love, the only one capable of preventing man from being an enemy to man.

7. It is equally necessary, on both sides, to promote the conditions for a fruitful dialogue between the Church and Universities today. In the fullness of their fair autonomy and in the midst of legal and civil contexts that cannot be those of the past, Universities may have no small interest in considering carefully and more deeply the very rich anthropology that the Second Vatican Council matured and expressed for the modern times, in inspiring documents such as the Constitution Gaudium et spes , which presents itself as a response not only to the hopes but also to the anxieties of modern man, thirsty, as perhaps never before in history, for liberation and fraternity. Catholic Universities, in accordance with their own mission, must deepen the divine-human foundations and the universal value of such anthropology.

However, all men and women of good will are earnestly invited to share this moral and spiritual vision of man, which our age is called to promote with all its energy, if it wants to overcome its contradictions and avoid the drama of absurd wars. and fratricidal lacerations. Otherwise, man will continue to shamefully exploit man, subjecting him to the cruel game of interests or ideologies.

This language — I am proving it in my meetings with men and women of culture and science — leaves no one indifferent. Everyone understands that to defend man with disinterest and promote his true progress, it is necessary to overcome our divisions, dissociate higher education from oppositions, in a word, fill the spirit with truth and justice.

The University would fail in its vocation if it closed itself to the sense of the absolute and the transcendent, as it would arbitrarily limit the investigation of all reality or truth, and would end up harming man himself, whose highest aspiration is to know the True, the Good , the Beautiful, and hope for a destiny that transcends it. Therefore, the University must become a witness to truth and justice, and reflect the moral conscience of a nation.

University students, intellectuals and educators can exert considerable pressure in the fight for social justice, an objective that must be pursued with courage and vigor, with the means of justice itself, carrying out all the improvements that ethics in economic relations require. and social, and at the same time avoiding the destructive violence of revolutionary struggles. The University has at its disposal an immense moral power to defend justice and law, acting in accordance with its own means, which are scientific competence and moral education. The University must also seek to encourage, as far as possible, the extension of the benefits of higher education to all classes and all generations likely to benefit from it.

Ambitious program, certainly; difficult to accomplish at once; but it is an ideal project that should inspire the future progress of the University, the reform of programs and the renewal of university orientation.

8. I make a special appeal to Catholics to generously accept these guidelines and discover the paths of a new dialogue between the Church and the university, scientific and cultural world. This undertaking seems vital to me for the Church and for your nations. In fact, what future can we expect if man is sacrificed and destroys himself? Only anthropology based on the unconditional love of man and respect for his transcendent destiny will allow today's generations to overcome the cruel divisions and fight against the lack of physical, moral and spiritual dignity that currently disgraces humanity.

Catholic Universities today have a special role to play in deepening a liberating anthropology that considers man in his body and spirit; and they can undertake an original dialogue with all men and women of good will. Starting from their vocation and their Christian identity, Catholic Universities will be able to respond effectively to the great current challenge.

I also make a pressing appeal to those Catholics who regularly work in universities and research centers, so that they may all unite to defend the individual and collective man, now and in the future. I am convinced that my appeal will receive a decisive and generous response from all those responsible in the Church: men and women religious, lay people, men and women of all ages.

Thinking about these very serious issues of our time, I decided to create the Pontifical Council for Culture (cf. Letter for the Institution of the Pontifical Council for Culture, 20 May 1982 ), with the aim of giving impetus to the Church in matters so important and testify, at the same time, to the great interest that the Holy See dedicates to the dialogue of cultures and the intellectual promotion of man.

To you, responsible and members of the university world in this geographical area, I renew my deep esteem for your high and transcendent mission. And I ask Him who is the fullness of Truth and the destiny of man, to guide your paths, lead you to serve the good of humanity and raise you to a height of transcendence.

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