The relation between Church, education and the mission of university teachers was discussed in recent days in Moscow, at a meeting promoted by Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, head of the diocese of the Mother of God, together with a group of university and college professors. “For priests – said the archbishop – it’s important to meet representatives of culture and intellectuals, because we need to know how they live and how students live, and what problems they face everyday”. Many difficulties, he added, “are aggravated today by the fact that often man not only refuses to obey the divine law, but does not even have any wish to know it”. Pointing out that it was just the Church that founded the first universities” and that she “has always supported the development of science and culture”, Archbishop Kondrusiewicz emphasized the close relation between faith and culture. At the meeting, discussion also focused on the Constitution of the European Union: “This document – it was observed – needs to be emended with a view to the effective integration of the continent, because Christian values are completely absent from it”. Recalling the periodic meetings held between university teachers in Rome, the archbishop announced that the 2007 conference would have as its theme “the new humanism in Europe: the role of the universities”, and stressed that “there’s a grave lack of spirituality in lay systems of education”, and yet spirituality is “the basis of the process of human growth and that of the personality”. He then appealed to university teachers “to always keep well in evidence the teaching of the Church” and find “a suitable language to speak to the young”. At the same time, concluded the archbishop of Moscow, “it’s important, as well as demanding, to maintain a good intellectual level in society”. He therefore supported the proposal of the director of the national Catholic weekly Svet Evangelia to promote a “club” of Christian intellectuals to discuss various aspects of social and spiritual life in Russia.
