EVANGELIZE WITH STUDY AND RESEARCH

VATICAN CITY, OCT 20, 2001 (VIS) - Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, presided yesterday evening in St. Peter's Basilica over the Eucharistic concelebration for the inauguration of the academic year of the ecclesiastical universities. The Pope gave the homily and imparted the final blessing.

In his homily, the Holy Father affirmed that theological knowledge must be "fully inserted in the vital context of ecclesial communion. ... Theology is called," he said, "to offer the contribution of research and in-depth examination of revealed truth, in order that the Gospel of salvation become more rightly understood and more easily communicated to all men."

"Analogously," he continued, "teachers of the other ecclesiastical disciplines will be supported by a strong passion for the truth and by a coherent desire of service to the evangelizing mission of the Church."

John Paul II invited the professors and students to be conscious "of carrying out your work with the Church, in the Church and for the Church. This requires a continual engagement with the 'sensus fidei' of the People of God and a profound harmony with the Magisterium of the Church."
"It is my heartfelt hope that the experience of studying in Rome helps everyone to deepen the sense of belonging to the Church and the experience of her 'Catholicity'."

The Pope concluded emphasizing that "the study of theology and the ecclesiastical disciplines is directed towards evangelization. May you know how, therefore, to follow a rigorous method, facing the fatigue of research with courage and generosity, to then experience in first person the fruitful meeting between faith and reason."

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