THE UNIVERSITY HAS AN ESSENTIALLY EDUCATIVE VOCATION

VATICAN CITY, OCT 29, 1999 (VIS) - This morning, John Paul II received the rector, professors and students of Rome's Free University of Mary Most Holy (LUMSA) on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of its foundation.

In his speech, the Pope said that "the path followed by LUMSA over these last sixty years has been characterized by a kind of intelligent and courageous 'cultural charity' which has always sought - with appropriate means and methods - to respond to the most pressing expectations of the young."

The Holy Father highlighted that the acquisition of knowledge is not university's only goal: "it has an essentially educative vocation which, through the impartial search for truth, seeks the harmonious edification of the character. ... The carrying out of this 'educative work' demands that the university be a true community, one in which teachers and students can establish constructive interpersonal relations."

In order to respond to the "crisis of meaning" which is the result of "the phenomenon of the fragmentation of knowledge," he indicated that it is necessary to "promote a culture of philosophy that 'recovers its sapiental dimension as a search for the ultimate and over-arching meaning of life' in harmony with the Word of God." He added: "I trust that your athenaeum, faithful to its original inspiration, may know how to take up this challenge."

Addressing the students, the Pope said: "The Church needs your youth, needs it committed to truth, peace and charity. At the threshold of the third millennium, this demands that you be fearless workers in the task of constructing 'a finer, purer and saintlier humanity, one that is pleasing to God whom men and women yearn for and need, especially today'."

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