What search for the truth?” “

There will be over a thousand participants at the European Symposium to be held in Rome from 17 to 20 July on the theme “University and Church in Europe”. The delegates – students, professors, bishops, persons involved in various capacities in university pastoral care – will split into 19 study groups to reflect on four thematic areas (The human person: genealogy, biology, biography; The city of man: society, environment, economy; The view of the sciences: discoveries, technologies, applications; Creativity and memory: the figurative, literary, musical and dramatic arts). In preparation for the symposium, promoted by the CCEE (Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe) in liaison with the episcopal Commission for education, school and university of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, a seminar was recently held at Katowice, in Poland. It was attended by delegates from 8 European countries, mainly from Eastern Europe. “Offering a framework of reflection on the hopes of the Church in Europe in the university apostolate”: this, explains Msgr. Lorenzo Leuzzi , director of the Office for university pastoral care of the diocese of Rome and coordinator of the meeting, was the main aim of the Polish seminar. Describing the situation of the relation between Church and university in Eastern Europe, the auxiliary bishop of Poznan, Marek Jedraszewski , pointed out that the current Catholic intelligentsia of these countries “was wholly formed by the university apostolate, even though a serious theological debate in the non-theological university faculties is still lacking”. In this regard Peter Climent , representative of FUCE (Federation of the Catholic Universities in Europe), underlined the need for the theological faculties to be present in all the Catholic universities”. Below some excerpts from the report presented by Father Peter Fleetwood , assistant secretary of the CCEE. “The Church in Europe shall only be a sign of hope for many people in Europe, if she is able to unite strong faith in the power of the Word of God with a willingness to listen. There are three groups of people that have a particular need to be listened to, and they all form an integral part of the university. A potential field of dialogue is the genuine search for the truth in literature – especially in poetry – and in scientific research. I think that a healthy dialogue on the nature and limits of the human knowledge of the truth would be infinitely better than a lack of communication between the many aspects of questions that are often unexpressed, and hence dangerous. The universities are fields in which a subtle war is being waged between a utilitarian view of knowledge and – in essence – the dignity of the human person. The Church ought to support research and study conceived in a wider sense, in a spectrum richer than a partial, reductive, monotone view. The genuine questions, the curiosity and even the occasional confusion of people incapable of believing in God are another challenge. The university chaplaincy is undoubtedly called to be a place of welcome, but also of respectful dialogue with those searching for the meaning of life. It is interesting that the three co-patrons of Europe are women (Saints Brigida, Catherine of Siena and Edith Stein). Perhaps something symbolic and important in this fact has escaped us. The universities are places where the Catholic Church may be at the service of women and where women may be witnesses of the Word at many levels. The dialogue between Christ, who evidently appreciated the female way of thinking and feeling, and the women of our time, who often see the traditions of Christianity more of an obstacle than a key to real freedom, can probably be given a better place in European universities. There women normally have a voice and opportunities, and that is vital if they are to build their future in European society. Rather too often people are familiar only with the educational role, but not with the maternal vocation of the Church. I think that the care and natural love of a mother for her children should not be obscured or suffocated by the obligation of the Church to correct and to admonish”.