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Pope Benedict XVI- Apostolic Journey to the Holy Land |
"Belief in God Does Not Suppress the Search for Truth"
Papal Speech After Blessing University Cornerstone
H.H. Benedict XVI
University of Madaba
May 9, 2009
Dear Brother Bishops,
Dear friends,
It is for me a great joy to bless this foundation stone of the
University of Madaba. I thank His Beatitude Archbishop Fouad Twal,
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, for his kind words of welcome. I wish
to extend a special greeting of recognition to His Beatitude,
Emeritus Patriarch Michel Sabbah, to whose initiative and efforts,
together with those of Bishop Salim Sayegh, this new institution
owes so much. I also greet the civil authorities, the Bishops,
priests, religious and faithful and all who accompany us for this
important ceremony.
The Kingdom of Jordan has rightly given priority to the task of
extending and improving education. I am aware that in this noble
mission Her Majesty Queen Rania is especially active and her
commitment is an inspiration to many. As I pay tribute to the
efforts of so many people of good will committed to education, I
note with satisfaction the competent and expert participation of
Christian institutions, especially Catholic and Orthodox, in this
overall effort. It is against this background that the Catholic
Church, with the support of the Jordanian authorities, has sought to
further university education in this country and elsewhere. This
present initiative also responds to the request of many families
who, pleased with the formation received in schools run by religious
authorities, are demanding an analogous option at the university
level.
I commend the promoters of this new institution for their courageous
confidence in good education as a stepping-stone for personal
development and for peace and progress in the region. In this
context the University of Madaba will surely keep in mind three
important objectives. By developing the talents and noble attitudes
of successive generations of students, it will prepare them to serve
the wider community and raise its living standards. By transmitting
knowledge and instilling in students a love of truth, it will
greatly enhance their adherence to sound values and their personal
freedom. Finally, this same intellectual formation will sharpen
their critical skills, dispel ignorance and prejudice, and assist in
breaking the spell cast by ideologies old and new. The result of
this process will be a university that is not only a platform for
consolidating adherence to truth and to the values of a given
culture, but a place of understanding and dialogue. While
assimilating their own heritage, young Jordanians and other students
from the region will be led to a deeper knowledge of human cultural
achievements, will be enriched by other viewpoints, and formed in
comprehension, tolerance and peace.
This "broader" education is what one expects from institutions of
higher learning and from their cultural milieu, be it secular or
religious. In fact, belief in God does not suppress the search for
truth; on the contrary it encourages it. Saint Paul exhorted the
early Christians to open their minds to "all that is true, all that
is noble, all that is good and pure, all that we love and honor, all
that is considered excellent or worthy of praise" (Phil 4:8).
Religion, of course, like science and technology, philosophy and all
expressions of our search for truth, can be corrupted. Religion is
disfigured when pressed into the service of ignorance or prejudice,
contempt, violence and abuse. In this case we see not only a
perversion of religion but also a corruption of human freedom, a
narrowing and blindness of the mind. Clearly, such an outcome is not
inevitable. Indeed, when we promote education, we proclaim our
confidence in the gift of freedom. The human heart can be hardened
by the limits of its environment, by interests and passions. But
every person is also called to wisdom and integrity, to the basic
and all-important choice of good over evil, truth over dishonesty,
and can be assisted in this task.
The call to moral integrity is perceived by the genuinely religious
person, since the God of truth and love and beauty cannot be served
in any other way. Mature belief in God serves greatly to guide the
acquisition and proper application of knowledge. Science and
technology offer extraordinary benefits to society and have greatly
improved the quality of life of many human beings. Undoubtedly this
is one of the hopes of those who are promoting this University,
whose motto is Sapientia et Scientia. At the same time the sciences
have their limitations. They cannot answer all the questions about
man and his existence. Indeed the human person, his place and
purpose in the universe cannot be contained within the confines of
science. "Humanity's intellectual nature finds its perfection
ultimately in wisdom, which gently draws the human mind to seek and
to love what is true and good" (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 15). The use of
scientific knowledge needs the guiding light of ethical wisdom. Such
is the wisdom that inspired the Hippocratic Oath, the 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Convention and other
laudable international codes of conduct. Hence religious and ethical
wisdom, by answering questions of meaning and value, play a central
role in professional formation. And consequently, those universities
where the quest for truth goes hand in hand with the search for what
is good and noble, offer an indispensable service to society.
With these thoughts in mind, I encourage in a special way the
Christian students of Jordan and the neighboring regions, to
dedicate themselves responsibly to a proper professional and moral
formation. You are called to be builders of a just and peaceful
society composed of peoples of various religious and ethnic
backgrounds. These realities - I wish to stress once more - must
lead, not to division, but to mutual enrichment. The mission and the
vocation of the University of Madaba is precisely to help you
participate more fully in this noble task.
Dear friends, I wish to renew my congratulations to the Latin
Patriarchate of Jerusalem and my encouragement to all who have taken
this project to heart, together with those who are already engaged
in the educational apostolate in this nation. May the Lord bless you
and sustain you. I pray that your dreams may soon come true, that
you may see generations of qualified men and women Christian, Muslim
and of other religions, taking their place in society, equipped with
professional skills, knowledgeable in their field, and educated in
the values of wisdom, integrity, tolerance and peace. Upon you and
upon all the future students and staff of this University and their
families, I invoke Almighty God's abundant blessings!
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