“An international bent is natural for Catholicism”, and universities must help ward off the “detachment from Christianity” in Europe, thus acting as “research and teaching connected to the Christian heritage”, to the “deep cultural currents” that “push towards secularisation and de-Christianisation”. This was said by card. Camillo Ruini, the Pope’s Vicar for the diocese of Rome, as he opened today the European University of Rome of the Legionaries of Christ. “An international bent is natural for Catholicism, also and specifically in the university sphere”, began the Cardinal, for whom “the Christian faith can materialise in the most diverse cultures, to infuse them with their lifeblood of truth and to give value to all things true, good and beautiful that they contain. This is what has happened so far in history and this is what must happen today”. Before that “detachment from Christianity that unfortunately has occurred in many European cultural settings”, Ruini recalled the “very demanding but also hopeful words” that were said in Subiaco by then Cardinal Ratzinger a few days before he was elected Pope, when he highlighted that “we need men who can look straight at God”. “The international dimension added the Pope’s Vicar for Rome is very important, also in the light of the current configuration of Europe, whose unification process is involving universities, according to the well-known ‘Bologna process'”. “The task of building a common house for the new generations concluded card. Ruini demands responsibility, cooperation, awareness of the values to be handed down”.
