Cardinal Poupard says Catholic universities must seek the truth, not just produce graduates

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jun 14, 2005 / 22:00 pm

 During a visit to Argentina, the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal Paul Poupard, said the mission of Catholic universities is not to merely produce graduates, but rather to help students seek out the truth.

In a speech at the Catholic University of Argentina on the challenges that today’s culture poses for education, the cardinal emphasized that the importance of the Catholic university does not boil down to enabling its graduates to enter the workforce, but rather it should be a place for seeking out the truth in communion between teachers and students, and for the formation and growth of individuals.

According to the Argentinean daily La Nacion, Cardinal Poupard said that to speak about the truth in contemporary culture constitutes an annoyance in an atmosphere characterized by nihilism, and he criticized universities for turning away from the classical questions about human existence--God, the meaning of life, death, and justice, as presented in literature, history and ethics—in favor of satisfying the demand for job opportunities in the marketplace.

The cardinal also expressed his fear about “living in world dominated by soul-less experts and at the mercy of specialists who know almost everything about very little and almost nothing about everything else, about the things that are most important.”