HOLY FATHER VISITS PONTIFICAL ECCLESIASTICAL ACADEMY

VATICAN CITY, APR 26, 2001 (VIS) - This morning John Paul II visited the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, on the occasion of the third centenary of its foundation. The Pontifical Academy, through a special course of study, prepares churchmen for Holy See diplomatic service to the particular churches in different countries of the world.

Currently, the Academy has 32 students from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Formerly called the "Pontifical Academy of Noble Ecclesiastics," the Academy changed seats various times, before definitively selecting, in 1706, the old Severoli Palace, in Piazza della Minerva.

In his discourse, the Pope recalled that what the students learn in the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy "is directed towards making the Word of God present to the ends of the earth. Therefore, it is a Word which must first take possession of your minds, your wills, your lives. If the Gospel has not taken root in your personal and community life, your activity could be reduced to a noble profession in which with greater or lesser success you confront questions regarding the Church or her presence in particular human milieux. ... You must be men of the spirit in search of agreement, the heralds of dialogue, the most convinced and determined builders of peace."

The Holy Father affirmed that especially urgent today is "the defense of man and of the image of God which is in him. You are called to be bearers of the human values which have their source in the Gospel, according to which every man is a brother to respect and to love."

John Paul II concluded his discourse emphasizing the need to "show" Christ "in contacts with the political and diplomatic milieux; this you achieve through your life's witness even before the force of juridical or diplomatic arguments. You will be effective in the measure in which those who approach you have the sensation of meeting in your words, your actions, your life, the freeing presence of the risen Christ."

At the end of the meeting, the Pope unveiled a memorial stone commemorating the third centenary of the Academy's foundation.

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