” “"The educational task is an integral part of the mission of the Church to proclaim the Word", and the "Catholic educational institutions serve society effectively", apart from "paying a vital contribution" to this mission": those words were spoken by Benedict XVI yesterday evening, during his speech addressed to the Catholic University world on the occasion of the meeting at the Washington Catholic University of America. By recalling that "the history of this country offers us numerous examples of the commitment of the Church to this respect" because "the Catholic community" made "education one of its most important priorities", the Pope underlined the importance of "becoming responsible for the material, intellectual and spiritual needs of over three million young people and students", of paying a contribution to the financial support of those institutions, and to let them "be accessible for people of every social and economic class". Today, went on Benedict XVI, "we see, with a certain anxiety, that the notion of freedom is distorted"; anyway, "freedom is not the faculty to be released from; it is the faculty to commit oneself for participating in the very Being. As a consequence, the real freedom will never be reached by distancing oneself from God". (To be continued)
