In his message to the 13th Public Conference for the Pontifical Academies, Pope Benedict XVI recalled "the necessity of broadening the horizons of reason." "In this perspective, we must understand the intimate connection that links beauty to the search for truth and goodness. As reason will be halved if deprived of beauty, so too will beauty be degraded to an empty and illusive masque if deprived of reason." Referring to the speech he made last 6 August in the meeting with the clergy of the diocese of Bressanone, the Pope writes "we must aim at a broader reason in which heart and reason are merging, beauty and truth are converging. If this commitment is addressed to everyone, it is all the more addressed to the faithful, to the disciples of Christ, called by the Lord to "testify" to the truth and beauty of their own faith." "The beauty of the works described in the Gospel are pointing to another beauty, truth and goodness that find their fulfilment and their ultimate source only in God." Hence the believer’s witness "must be nurtured by this beauty." (continued) ” ” ” “
