John Paul II: Universities must speak out loud of Europe’s Christian roots

Vatican City, Feb 16, 2004 / 22:00 pm

Pope John Paul II said today that Universities “can speak out loud” of the Christian roots of Europe that “the ideology of the secularism” wants to silence.

“Today, we speak of the Christian roots of Europe. If one sign of these are the cathedrals, the works of art, music and literature, they in a certain sense speak in silence”, the Pope told 20 representatives of the University of Opole, Poland, who are in Rome to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its founding.

“Universities, however, can speak out loud. Yes, this voice might not be received by those who have been deafened by the ideology of the secularism of our continent but this does not release men of science from the duty of giving witness to that science and knowledge which grew in the fertile terrain of Christianity,” he stressed.

The University of Opole conferred on the Pope an “honoris causa” doctorate. 

The Holy Father recalled that ten years ago he approved the institution of the Theology Faculty within the structure of the state university, knowing that ”the birth of this athenaeum was very important for Opole.”

John Paul II thanked God, “for the fact that the University cooperates with the Church in the work of integration of society in Opole”.

“If we speak of integration of society, we do not mean this in the sense of the canceling of differences, of the unification of the way of thinking, of forgetting history – often marked by events that created divisions – but rather as a continuing search for those values that are common among men, that have different roots, a different story and, as a result, their own vision of the world and references to the societies they are living in,” he added.