Holy Father Friday
This is an excerpt from the speech that the Holy Father, Pope Benedict was invited to deliver at La Sapienza, a University in Rome. After protests by the faculty and the threat of violence and confrontation, the Holy Father decided not to attend and deliver the speech. If you would like to read the entire text of what the "open minded, tolerant and diverse faculty and students of La Sapienza could not tolerate you can find it here.
On Knowledge and Truth
"In fact those who only see and learn all that happens in the world end up becoming sad. But the truth means more than knowledge. The purpose of knowing the truth is to know what is good. This is also the sense of Socrates’ way of questioning: What good thing makes us true? Truth makes us good and goodness is true. This optimism dwells in the Christian faith because it was allowed to see the Logos, the creative Reason that, in God’s incarnation, revealed itself as that which is Good, as Goodness itself."
On Knowledge and Truth
"In fact those who only see and learn all that happens in the world end up becoming sad. But the truth means more than knowledge. The purpose of knowing the truth is to know what is good. This is also the sense of Socrates’ way of questioning: What good thing makes us true? Truth makes us good and goodness is true. This optimism dwells in the Christian faith because it was allowed to see the Logos, the creative Reason that, in God’s incarnation, revealed itself as that which is Good, as Goodness itself."
Comments (4)
Pope Boniface VIII founded La Sapienza. He's the pope who bound us to profess, "We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff."
Today, the Catholic university has fallen to the secularists, and what does Pope Benedict have to say? "He [the pope] certainly should not try to impose in an authoritarian manner his faith on others, which can only be freely offered. Beyond his ministry as Pastor of the Church and on the basis of the intrinsic nature of this pastoral ministry, it is his task to keep alive man’s responsiveness to the truth."
Farewell, Catholic universities.
Posted by Cyprian
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January 25, 2008 7:51 PM
Posted on January 25, 2008 19:51
Dear Cyprian,
I have a question for you
Is it possible for a true conversion to be compelled or coerced by any authority?
Posted by staff
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January 26, 2008 11:45 AM
Posted on January 26, 2008 11:45
Imposition or coercion is an old canard, and it's unfortunate that his Holiness uses it to cast aspersions on his predecessors. What he is saying is that he maintains his committment to "academic freedom," the failed policy of the last century.
One can test such a policy at home; simply tell your kids that you won't impose Catholic Faith and morals, but will always be there with the truth, should they want it. Sounds reasonable?
The pope has immediate jurisdiction over each Catholic university, and thus has a duty to guarantee that each stays Catholic. Catholic universities were once magnificent, but now they are filled with "chairs of pestilence." (St. Pius X)
Posted by Cyprian
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January 26, 2008 6:09 PM
Posted on January 26, 2008 18:09
More to the point, it was Pope St. Pius X who "imposed" upon the universities a profession of Faith and the oath against Modernism. His orders included:
"All these prescriptions, both Our own and those of Our predecessors, are to be kept in view whenever there is a question of choosing directors and teachers for seminaries and for Catholic universities. Anyone who in any way is found to be tainted with Modernism is to be excluded without compunction from these offices, whether of administration or of teaching, and those who already occupy such offices are to be removed. The same policy is to be followed with regard to those who openly or secretly lend support to Modernism, ..."
Was St. Pius X out of line? Was he just a product of his time? And who exactly rescinded his orders?
Posted by Cyprian
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January 27, 2008 7:38 PM
Posted on January 27, 2008 19:38