"A naturalistic interpretation of man is not only incompatible with the Christian faith" but "involves a real overturning of the starting point of modernity", which "puts an end to humanism" and opens a "post-humanist" phase in the current cultural climate, also marked by such phenomena as the "primacy of the body" and the two prevalent trends of "relativism" and "agnosticism". It was said by card. Camillo Ruini, the Pope’s vicar for the diocese of Rome, as he spoke at the meeting of European university lecturers, promoted by Ccee, that opened in Rome today, about: "A new humanism for Europe". "The rejection of the naturalistic interpretation of man specified, however, Ruini, as he spoke to the 2,500 university lecturers from 14 European countries cannot be the last word of the Christian faith about the new anthropological question". This is because, according to the cardinal, "Christian humanism by no means involve any form of aversion for the empirical sciences": on the contrary, the "typically humanistic" plan to "extend the spheres of rationality", as powerfully proposed by Benedict XVI, "boosts a genuine development of the sciences, freeing them of the ever-present risk of remaining caught in a scientist reductionism".
