CHRISTIAN HUMANISM PRESERVES MEANING OF HUMAN BEINGS

VATICAN CITY, SEP 29, 2003 (VIS) - Made public today was a Message from the Pope to participants in the International Thomist Congress, organized by the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas and the International Thomas Aquinas Society. The meeting took place in Rome last week.

After recalling the theme of the congress, "Christian Humanism in the Third Millennium," the Holy Father writes that "the humanism of St. Thomas revolves around this essential intuition: Man comes from God and to Him he must return. Time is the sphere within which he will carry out this noble mission of his, taking advantage of the opportunities that are offered to him on the level of nature and grace."

In the face of dangers such as "the loss of faith in reason and in its capacity to find the truth, nihilism, relativism, the rejection of transcendence. ... I have indicated how St. Thomas' thought, with its strong faith in reason and the clear explanation of the articulation of nature and grace, can offer us the basic elements for a valid response. Christian humanism, as illustrated by St. Thomas, has the capability of preserving the meaning of man and his dignity. This is the exalting task entrusted to his disciples!"

MESS;SAINT THOMAS;...;...;VIS;20030929;Word: 220;