Catholic universities must promote growth in faith, knowledge, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Rather than educating students to "become experts in infinitesimal details of reality," Pope Leo XIV said, Catholic universities must help them have a broader vision, one that holds together faith, spirituality and knowledge of the world.

Catholic education should give students an approach that "does not oversimplify questions, that does not fear doubts, that overcomes intellectual laziness, and thus also defeats spiritual atrophy," the pope told students from the pontifical universities of Rome during an evening Mass Oct. 27.

He prayed that their studies would help them "express, explain, deepen and proclaim the reasons for the hope that is in us."

The pontifical universities and institutes in Rome enroll more than 15,000 students from some 125 nations; they study theology and philosophy, but also liturgy, sacred music, communications, canon law, archaeology and other subjects.

Before the Mass, Pope Leo walked to a table set in front of the altar and signed his apostolic letter commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Christian Education, "Gravissimum Educationis."

To the applause of the students, the pope held up the document, "Drawing New Maps of Hope," after signing it, then walked down the central aisle of the basilica to vest for Mass. The Vatican was expected to publish the document Oct. 28.

In his homily at the Mass, Pope Leo prayed that the students, researchers and academics would be given "the grace of an overall vision, a gaze capable of grasping the horizon, of going beyond."

The day's Gospel reading, Luke 13:10-17, recounted the story of Jesus healing a woman who for 18 years had been crippled, "bent over, completely incapable of standing erect."

In that condition, the pope said, the woman would not have been able to look up; her vision would have been limited to herself and the ground.

When a person, like that woman, "is unable to see beyond himself -- beyond his own experience, ideas and convictions, beyond his own frameworks -- he remains imprisoned, enslaved, unable to form an independent judgment," the pope said.

"This healed woman obtains hope, because she can finally lift up her gaze and see something new -- see differently," he said. "This happens especially when we encounter Christ in our lives: We open ourselves to a truth capable of transforming life, of drawing us out of ourselves, of freeing us from our inward curvatures."

Study at a Catholic university, he said, should help students look up, "toward God, toward others, toward the mystery of life."

Learning facts is not the point, the pope said.

"Looking to the example of men and women such as Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Teresa of Ávila, Edith Stein and many others who were able to integrate research into their lives and their spiritual journeys," he said, "we too are called to carry forward intellectual work and the search for truth without separating them from life."

What students learn in the university, and at every level of their educational journey, he said, should not remain "an abstract intellectual exercise, but become a reality capable of transforming life -- of deepening our relationship with Christ, of helping us better understand the mystery of the church and of making us bold witnesses of the Gospel in society."

Catholic education, he said, "is truly an act of love" that raises people up and helps them in the search for meaning. It is the way to give people "the greatest gift of all: to know that we are not alone, and that we belong to someone," to God, "who loves us and has a plan of love for our lives."