SUMMARY:
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ECCLESIASTICAL UNIVERSITIES ARE NOT MACHINES FOR PRODUCING
THEOLOGIANS AND PHILOSOPHERS
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POPE FRANCIS: HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS A WOUND TO HUMANITY
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DECLARATION OF COMMITMENT FROM THE HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SLAVERY
CONFERENCE
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AUDIENCES
______________________________________
ECCLESIASTICAL
UNIVERSITIES ARE NOT MACHINES FOR PRODUCING THEOLOGIANS AND
PHILOSOPHERS
Vatican
City, 10 April 2014 (VIS) ? This morning Pope Francis received in
audience the professors, students and non-teaching staff of the
Gregorian Pontifical University, the Pontifical Biblical Institute
and the Pontifical Oriental Institute. These institutions, brought
together in a consortium by Pope Pius XI in 1923, were entrusted to
the Society of Jesus and the Holy Father recalled the importance of
collaboration between them in ?safeguarding historical memory and, at
the same time, taking responsibility for the present and looking to
the future with creativity and imagination?.
Pope
Francis indicated two aspects that should characterise the task of
the members of the consortium, both teachers and students. The first
is to acknowledge the value of the place where they work and study ?
the city and above all the Church of Rome. ?There is a part and there
is a present. There are the roots of faith: the memories of the
Apostles and the Martyrs; and there is the ecclesial 'today', the
current path of this Church which presides over charity, the service
of unity and universality. All this must not be taken for granted! ?
But at the same time you bring here the variety of your Churches of
origin and of your cultures. ? This offers a valuable opportunity for
growth in faith and in opening the mind and the heart to the horizon
of Catholicity. Within this horizon, the dialectic between 'centre'
and 'periphery' takes on a form of its own, an evangelical form
according to the logic of a God who reaches the centre from the
periphery, to then return to the periphery?.
The
second aspect was the relationship between study and spiritual life,
and which constitutes ?one of the challenges of our times:
transmitting knowledge and offering a key to a vital understanding,
not an accumulation of unconnected notions. There is a need for a
true evangelical hermeneutics to better understand life, the world,
and humankind, not a synthesis but a spiritual atmosphere of research
and certainty based on the truths of reason and faith. Philosophy and
theology enable us to acquire the convictions that structure and
strengthen intelligence and enlighten will ? but all this is fruitful
only if it is done with an open mind and on one's knees. The
theologian who is satisfied with his complete and conclusive thought
is mediocre. A good theologian and philosopher is open, or incomplete
in thought, always open to the 'maius' of God and of the truth,
always in development. ? And the theologian who does not pray or does
not adore God ends up sinking into the most repugnant narcissism. And
this is an ecclesiastical sickness. Narcissism in theologians and in
thinkers is harmful and repugnant?.
The
Holy Father continued, ?The aim of study in any pontifical university
is ecclesial. Research and study are to be integrated with personal
and community life, with missionary commitment, with fraternal
charity and sharing with the poor, with attention to inner life in
relation to the Lord. Your Institutes are not machines for producing
theologians and philosophers; they are communities in which one
grows, and growth occurs in the family?. The university family is
?indispensable for creating an attitude of concrete humanity and
wisdom, making students into people capable of building humanity, of
transmitting the truth in a human dimension, of knowing that if there
lacks the goodness and beauty of belonging to a working family one
ends up as an intellectual without talent, an ethicist without
goodness, a thinker lacking the splendour of beauty and simply
'adorned' with formalism. Respectful and daily contact with the
laboriousness and the witness of the men and women in your
institutions will give you the quota of realism necessary for your
science to be human and not merely that of the laboratory?, he
concluded.
POPE
FRANCIS: HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS A WOUND TO HUMANITY
Vatican
City, 10 April 2014 (VIS) ? ?An open wound on the body of
contemporary society, a scourge upon the body of Christ. It is a
crime against humanity?: the Holy Father thus described human
trafficking in his English-language address to the participants in
the ?Second International Conference on Combating Human Trafficking:
Church and Law Enforcement in Partnership?, which took place from 9
to 10 April in the Vatican, organised by the Episcopal Conference of
England and Wales. ?This is an important meeting, a gesture on the
part of the Church and people of good will who want to cry out,
'Enough!'?, he added.
?The
very fact of our being here to combine our efforts means that we want
our strategies and areas of expertise to be accompanied and
reinforced by the mercy of the Gospel, by closeness to the men and
women who are victims of this crime?, said the Pope. ?Our meeting
today includes law enforcement authorities, who are primarily
responsible for combating this tragic reality by a vigorous
application of the law. It also includes humanitarian and social
workers, whose task it is to provide victims with welcome, human
warmth and the possibility of building a new life. These are two
different approaches, but they can and must go together. To dialogue
and exchange views on the basis of these two complementary approaches
is important. Conferences such as this are extremely helpful, and, I
would say, much needed?.
Before
concluding, the Holy Father thanked the participants for their
collaboration and commented on the importance of the fact that, ?one
year after your first meeting, you have regrouped from throughout the
world in order to advance your common efforts?.
DECLARATION
OF COMMITMENT FROM THE HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SLAVERY CONFERENCE
Vatican
City, 10 April 2014 (VIS) ? The Declaration of Commitment following
the ?Second International Conference on Combating Human Trafficking:
Church and Law Enforcement in Partnership?, which took place in the
Vatican's Casina Pio IV, is published in full below:
?On
this date 10 April 2014 in the Vatican, senior law enforcement
officials and representatives of the Catholic Church met to plan ways
of together combating human trafficking and slavery.
The
Holy Father Pope Francis has endorsed this event and has stated:
?I
exhort the international community to adopt an even more unanimous
and effective strategy against human trafficking, so that in every
part of the world, men and women may no longer be used as a means to
an end, and that their inviolable dignity may always be respected.
As
senior law enforcement officials within the international community,
we commit to eradicate the scourge of this serious criminal activity,
which abuses vulnerable people. This conference is part, of a process
where we work together on the international stage to develop
strategies in prevention, pastoral care and re-integration, placing
the victim at the centre of all we do.
I
make a personal commitment to developing partnerships with the Church
and civil society to bring to justice those who are responsible for
these horrendous crimes and to alleviate the suffering of the
victims?.
AUDIENCES
Vatican
City, 10 April 2014 (VIS) ? Today, the Holy Father received in
audience:
-
Zvonimir Jankuloski, the new ambassador of the ex-Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia to the Holy See, presenting his credential letters.
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Archbishop Peter Rajic, apostolic nuncio in Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen,
Qatar and United Arab Emirates, apostolic delegate in the Arabian
Peninsula.
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