POPE LAUDS COLLABORATION BETWEEN ROME AND KRAKOW UNIVERSITIES

VATICAN CITY, APR 5, 2001 (VIS) - Pope John Paul this morning welcomed professors from Rome's La Sapienza University and the Polish Academy of Sciences and Letters of Krakow on the occasion of the signing of an Accord of Collaboration between the two institutions. In his remarks to the group he noted that the Polish academy "has happily resumed full activity, after 38 years of painful interruption, decreed by the communist regime."

He added that "the just-concluded Accord is part of the new climate which has been established in Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall at the end of the Eighties. It is a witness to the desire present in broad levels of European culture to build a common homeland, which is not only the fruit of economic interests but which above all is a community of values, traditions and ideals."

The Holy Father affirmed that, "as Bishop of Rome and Pastor of the Catholic Church, which has played and will continue to play a role in building European civilization, and also as a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Letters of Krakow, I wish to express my great pleasure and appreciation for this initiative." He said it should contribute "significantly to building a Europe which breathes with both lungs, drawing from the historical patrimony and the cultural, moral, civil and religious riches of its peoples from East and West."

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