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Pope
Benedict XVI - Addresses |
Address to Education Congregation
"To Educate is an Act of Love"
February 7, 2011
Esteemed Cardinals,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and the
Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I address to each of you my cordial greeting
for this visit on the occasion of the
plenary meeting of the Congregation for
Catholic Education. I greet Cardinal Zenon
Grocholewski, prefect of the dicastery,
thanking him for his courteous words, as
well as the secretary, undersecretary,
officials and collaborators.
The topics you are addressing in these days
have education and formation as common
denominator, which today constitute one of
the most urgent challenges that the Church
and her institutions are called to address.
The educational endeavor seems to have
become ever more arduous because, in a
culture which too often makes relativism its
creed, the light of truth is lacking, more
than that, it is considered dangerous to
speak of truth, thus instilling doubt on the
basic values of personal and community life.
Important, because of this, is the service
carried out in the world by the numerous
formative institutions that are inspired in
the Christian vision of man and of reality:
to educate is an act of love, exercise of
"intellectual charity," which requires
responsibility, dedication, consistency of
life. The work of your Congregation and the
choices you will make in these days of
reflection and study will certainly
contribute to respond to the present
"educational emergency."
Your Congregation, created in 1915 by
Benedict XV, has carried out its work for
almost one hundred years at the service of
the various Catholic institutions of
formation. Among these, undoubtedly, the
seminary is one of the most important for
the life of the Church; hence, it exacts a
formative plan that takes into account the
context referred to above. Several times I
have stressed how the seminary is a precious
stage of life, in which the candidate to the
priesthood experiences being "a disciple of
Jesus." Required for this time destined to
formation is a certain detachment, a certain
"desert," because the Lord speaks to the
heart with a voice that is heard if there is
silence (cf. 1 Kings 19:12).; but required
also is willingness to live together, to
love "family life" and the community
dimension that anticipate that "sacramental
fraternity" which must characterize every
diocesan presbyter (cf. "Presbyterorum
Ordinis," No. 8) and which I also wished to
recall in my recent Letter to Seminarians:
"one does not become a priest on one's own.
There is the 'community of disciples,' the
totality of those who wish to serve the
common Church."
In these days you also studied the draft of
the document on the Internet and formation
in the seminaries. Because of its capacity
to surmount distances and put people in
mutual contact, the Internet presents great
possibilities also for the Church and her
mission. With the necessary discernment for
its intelligent and prudent use, it is an
instrument that can serve not only for
studies, but also for the pastoral action of
future presbyters in different ecclesial
fields, such as evangelization, missionary
action, catechesis, educational projects,
the management of institutes. Also of
extreme importance in this field is to be
able to count on adequately prepared
formators who will be faithful guides and
always up-to-date, in order to support the
candidates to the priesthood in the correct
and positive use of the media.
This year, then, is the LXX anniversary of
the Pontifical Work for Priestly Vocations,
instituted by the Venerable Pius XII to
foster collaboration between the Holy See
and the local Churches in the precious work
of promotion of vocations to the ordained
ministry. This anniversary could be the
occasion to know and evaluate the most
significant vocational initiatives promoted
in the local Churches. In addition to
stressing the value of the universal call to
follow Jesus, the vocational pastoral must
insist more clearly on the profile of the
ministerial priesthood, characterized by its
specific configuration to Christ, which
distinguishes it essentially from the other
faithful and puts itself at their service.
Moreover, you also undertook a revision of
what the apostolic constitution "Sapientia
Christiana" prescribes on ecclesiastical
studies, regarding Canon Law, the Higher
Institutes of Religious Studies and,
recently, philosophy. A sector on which to
reflect particularly is that of theology. It
is important the render ever more solid the
bond between theology and the study of
sacred Scripture, so that the latter is
really its soul and heart (cf. "Verbum
Domini," No. 31).
However, the theologian must not forget that
he is also the one who speaks to God. Hence,
it is indispensable to have theology closely
united with personal and community prayer,
especially liturgical prayer. Theology is
sciencia fidei and prayer nourishes faith.
In the union with God, mystery is, in some
way, savored, it comes close, and this
proximity is light for the intelligence. I
would also like to stress the connection
between theology and the other disciplines,
considering that it is taught in Catholic
Universities and, in many cases, in civil
ones. Blessed John Henry Newman spoke of the
"circle of knowledge," to indicate that an
interdependence exists between the different
branches of knowledge; but God is He who has
a relationship only with the totality of the
real; consequently, to eliminate God means
to break the circle of knowledge.
In this perspective, the Catholic
universities, with their very precise
identity and their openness to the
"totality" of the human being, can carry out
a valuable work of promoting the unity of
knowledge, orienting students and teachers
to the Light of the world, "the true light
that enlightens every man" (John 1:9). These
are considerations that are valid also for
Catholic schools. First of all, there must
be the courage to proclaim the "great" value
of education, to form solid persons able to
collaborate with others and to give meaning
to their life. Today there is talk of
inter-cultural education, object of study
also in your Plenary Assembly.
Required in this realm is a courageous and
innovative fidelity, which is able to
combine the clear awareness of one's
identity with openness to others, because of
the exigencies of living together in
multi-cultural societies. Emerging also for
this end is the educational role of the
teaching of the Catholic religion as
scholastic discipline in inter-disciplinary
dialogue with others. In fact, this
contributes widely not only to the integral
development of the student, but also to
knowledge of the other, to mutual
understanding and respect. To attain such
objectives particular attention must be
given to the care of the formation of
leaders and formators, not only from a
professional point of view, but also
religious and spiritual, so that, with the
consistency of one's life and with personal
involvement, the presence of the Christian
educator will be expression of the love and
witness of the truth.
Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for
all that you do with your competent work at
the service of educational institutions.
Always keep your gaze turned to Christ, the
only Teacher, so that with his Spirit he
will render your work effective. I entrust
you to the maternal protection of Mary Most
Holy, Sedes Sapientiae, and I impart to all
my heartfelt Apostolic Blessing.
[Translation by ZENIT]
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