The "origins of Western theology" and the "roots of European culture" are connected with "monastic culture, i.e. the activity of the monks who were "looking for God". It was said by the Pope today at the start of his speech at Collége des Bernardins, founded by card. Lustiger as a "centre of dialogue between Christian wisdom and the intellectual and artistic cultural currents of contemporary society", recalled Benedict XVI, who also thanked the delegates of the French Muslim community "for accepting to take part in this meeting", to whom he made "his best wishes for the current Ramadan". "The search for God needs, as its inherent requirement, a culture of the word", explained the Pope, who also lingered on the real meaning of the word "erudition": "an education which has the ultimate goal for man to learn to serve God", which "also involves the education of the reason, through which man learns to perceive the Word amidst the words". Music and singing are important too, because "the culture of singing is also a culture of being", and "the great Western music" was born of such "true beauty". According to the Pope, "badly performed singing" plunges man into the "area of dissimilitude", the "distance from God", in which man "becomes dissimilar not only to God, but also to himself".
