ZENIT News / Vatican City, 28.07.2025).- From July 28 to August 1, the 28th Annual Assembly of the International Federation of Catholic Universities is taking place in Guadalajara, Mexico. This year, the meeting revolves around the theme «Catholic Universities, Choreographers of Knowledge.» Below is the Pope’s Message to the participants.
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Dear Members of the
International Federation of Catholic Universities
In the context of the 28th General Assembly of the International Federation of Catholic Universities, which is being held this year in Guadalajara, Mexico, I thank you for the opportunity to share a few brief reflections with you. The motto inspiring the celebration of the IFCU’s centenary is: «Catholic Universities, Choreographers of Knowledge.» It is a very beautiful expression, inviting us to ask ourselves what music we are following.
In our time, perhaps more than in other eras, there are many «siren songs» that are attractive due to their novelty, their popularity, or, in other cases, the apparent security they inspire. Beyond such impressions, which are superficial in themselves, Catholic Universities are called to become «itineraries of the mind toward God,» according to the happy expression of St. Bonaventure, so that the timely exhortation of St. Augustine may become a reality in us: «Consider, brothers, what happens in the human soul. By itself it has no light, it has no strength: all that is beautiful in the soul is strength and wisdom, but what it knows is not its own, nor is its strength its own, nor is it light by itself […]. There is an origin and a source of strength, and a root of wisdom; there is, so to speak, a region, if one may call it that, of unchanging truth; if the soul turns away from it, it enters into darkness, and if it draws near to it, it is illuminated» (Commentary on the Psalms, 58, I, 18).
The university environment, with its characteristic dialogue between different worldviews, is not foreign to the being and work of the Church. To understand why, it is worth recalling, albeit briefly, how Christians, from the very beginning of evangelization, clearly perceived that the Good News could not be proclaimed without clarifying to what degree it was or was not compatible with other ways of seeing the world and other proposals about what it means to be human and live in society. In this regard, the question that Saint Paul poses to the Christians of Rome is relevant, inviting them to compare their current way of life with the one they had previously: «What profit did they have then from the works that now make them ashamed? The result of such works is death» (Romans 6:21). Those peoples of the classical world were not lacking in intelligence, and yet the end and outcome of all their reasoning is summed up, for the Apostle, in the word «death.» Why? What was missing? Christ, the Word and Wisdom of the Father, was missing; He through Whom and for Whom all things were made was missing (cf. Colossians 1:16). Christ does not come as a stranger to rational discourse but rather as a keystone that gives meaning and harmony to all our thinking, to all our longings and projects to improve our present life and to give purpose and transcendence to human effort.
Saint Thomas understood well that in Christ-Wisdom lies simultaneously what is most proper to our faith and what is most universal to human intelligence, and, therefore, wisdom, thus understood, is the natural place of encounter and dialogue with all cultures and all forms of thought. We read in his Commentary on the Sentences that wisdom «whether it be a capacity of the intellect or a gift [of God], deals above all with the divine; and insofar as everything else can be judged by it, it is said that the wise man attains greater certainty than all» (III, d. 35, q. 2, a. 2, qc 2). Thus, we do not need to distance ourselves from Christ, nor relativize His unique and proper place, in order to converse respectfully and fruitfully with other schools of knowledge, ancient and recent.
Dear brothers and sisters, with the desire that Christ-Wisdom — the Truth made Person, who draws the world to Himself — may be the compass that guides the work of the university institutions over which you preside, and that your loving knowledge may constitute the impetus for a new evangelization in the sphere of Catholic higher education, I impart to all the Apostolic Blessing.
Vatican, July 21, 2025
LEO PP. XIV
