OVERCOMING THE DIVISION: SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS - SPIRITUAL VALUES

VATICAN CITY, MAY 5, 2000 (VIS) - Made public this afternoon was a message from the Pope for the 76th Day of Rome's Sacred Heart Catholic University, which will be celebrated on Sunday, May 7 on the theme "A culture of solidarity for our country." The letter is addressed to Sergio Zaninelli, rector of the university.

John Paul II writes that, in order for a culture of solidarity "to be authentic and profound it needs something that may be termed 'solidarity of culture', in other words a view of knowledge that, although aware of its limits, is not contented by mere fragments but rather attempts to put them together to create a synthesis of truth and knowledge. Nothing is more devastating in contemporary culture than the widespread illusion that reaching the truth is an illusion of traditional metaphysics."

The Catholic University, he went on, is particularly called "to contribute to overcoming the shameful divide between scientific progress and values of the spirit that drives towards materialism, and whose outcome is an individualistic and competitive society that often gives rise to injustice and violence, marginalization and discrimination, conflict and wars."

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