Pope Francis addresses Hungary's academicians and
scientists at the last public event of his Apostolic Visit, and urges them to
always be humble and recall that knowledge is truth and that truth is freedom.
By Francesca Merlo
Pope Francis’ final meeting in Budapest took place at
the Péter Pázmány Catholic University, where he spoke to representatives of
Hungarian academicians and exponents of culture.
In his addresss, the Holy Father focused on the
acquisition of knowledge, which he said “entails a constant planting of seeds
that take root in the soil of reality and bear rich fruit.”
He recalled that Romano Guardini, “a great
intellectual and a man of deep faith”, claimed that there were “two ways of
‘knowing’”: One is a gentle, relational knowledge and mastery, which Guardini
described as “rule by service, creation out of natural possibilities, which
does not transgress set limits”, and another which he described as not
inspecting but analysing.
The machine
Pope Francis noted that, in this second form of
knowledge, “materials and energy are directed to a single end: the machine”,
and that as a result “a technique of controlling living people is developing.”
"Guardini did not demonize technology,"
noted the Pope, "which improves life and communication and brings many
advantages, but he warned of the risk that it might end up controlling, if not
dominating, our lives. He foresaw the threat and left us with the question: Can
life retain its living character in this system?”
Contemporary reality
The Pope went on to note that much of what Guardini
foresaw seems obvious to us today.
“We need but think of the ecological crisis, the lack
of ethical boundaries, of our tendency to concentrate on the individual,
absorbed in his or her needs, greedy for gain and power, and on the consequent
erosion of communal bonds, with the result that alienation and anxiety are no
longer merely existential crises, but societal problems," he said.
He went on to quote, as he has done before, the novel
The Lord of the World, by Robert Hugh Benson, describing it as being “to some
degree prophetic in its description of a future dominated by technology, where
everything is made bland and uniform in the name of progress, and a new
'humanitarianism' is proclaimed, cancelling diversity, suppressing the
distinctiveness of peoples and abolishing religion.”
Real intellect includes humility
Pope Francis went on to stress that true intellectuals
are truly humble. He explained that “they feel the duty to remain open and
communicative, never unbending and combative. True lovers of culture, in fact,
never feel entirely satisfied; they always experience a healthy interior
restlessness.”
Truth is freedom
Pope Francis’ final point to the academic and cultural
world reflected on the words of Jesus, when He said: “The truth will make you
free”.
The Pope noted that “Hungary has seen a succession of
ideologies that imposed themselves as truth, yet failed to bestow freedom”,
adding that this risk remains to this day.
“I think of the shift from communism to consumerism,”
said the Pope, noting how easy it is to pass from limits imposted on thinking,
to the belief that there are no limits.
Instead, said Pope Francis, "Jesus offers a way
forward; He tells us that truth frees us from our fixations and our narrowness.
The key to accessing this truth is a form of knowledge that is never detached
from love, a knowledge that is relational, humble and open, concrete and communal,
courageous and constructive."
Universities, concluded the Pope, are called to
cultivate this form of relational knowledge, expressing his hopes that all
universities "will always be beacons of universality and freedom, fruitful
workshops of humanism, laboratories of hope.”
ADDRESS OF HIS
HOLINESS
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