Speech by Pope Francis to the professors of the Catholic University of Leuven, in Belgium

This September 27, 2024, Pope Francis had a meeting with professors from the Catholic University of Leuven, on the second day of his apostolic visit to Belgium.

Below is the Holy Father’s speech:

Mr. Rector, illustrious professors, dear brothers and sisters, good afternoon.

I am glad to be here among you and I thank the rector for his words of welcome, with which he recalled the history and tradition on which this University is founded, as well as some of the main current challenges that challenge us all. This is the first task of the University: to offer comprehensive training so that people acquire the necessary instruments to interpret the present and project the future.

Cultural training, certainly, is never an end in itself and universities should not fall into the temptation of becoming “cathedrals in the desert”, but are, by their very nature, places where ideas and new stimuli are promoted. for the life and thought of man and for the challenges of society, that is, generative spaces. It is beautiful to think that the University generates culture, develops ideas, but above all promotes the passion for the search for truth, at the service of human progress. In particular, Catholic athenaeums, like this one, are called “to bring the decisive contribution of the leaven, the salt and the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the living Tradition of the Church, which is always open to new scenarios and new proposals» (ap. Const. Veritatis gaudium, 3).

I therefore wish to make you a simple invitation to expand the frontiers of knowledge. It is not about increasing notions or theories, but about making academic and cultural training a vital space, which embraces life and challenges it.

There is a brief biblical story told in the Book of Chronicles, which I would like to evoke here. The protagonist is Iabés, who addresses this supplication to God: “If you truly bless me, you will enlarge my borders” (1 Chr 4:10). Iabés means “pain,” and he had been named that because his mother had suffered a lot when giving birth to him. But now Iabés does not want to remain locked in his pain, allowing himself to be carried away by lament, and asks the Lord to “expand the borders” of his life, to enter a blessed, larger, more welcoming space.

Expanding the borders and being an open space for man and society constitutes the great mission of the University.

In our context, indeed, we find ourselves facing an ambivalent situation, in which the margins are narrowing. On the one hand, we are immersed in a culture marked by the renunciation of the search for truth; We have lost the restless passion to investigate, to take refuge in the comfort of a weak thought, in the conviction that everything is equal, that one thing is worth the same as the other, that everything is relative. On the other hand, when we talk about truth in university contexts and also in other areas, we often fall into a rationalist attitude, according to which only what we can measure and experience can be considered true, as if life were reduced only to matter and the visible. In both cases the limits are reduced.

Regarding the first point, we have the fatigue of the spirit, which relegates us to constant uncertainty and the absence of passion, as if it were useless to search for meaning in a reality that remains incomprehensible. This feeling frequently emerges in some characters in the works of Franz Kafka, who described the tragic and distressing condition of man in the 20th century. In a dialogue between two characters in one of his stories, we find this statement: “I believe that you do not deal with the truth simply because it is too exhausting” (Description of a struggle, 1908). Searching for the truth is exhausting, because it forces us to get out of ourselves, to take risks, to ask ourselves questions. And, for this reason, we are more attracted – in the fatigue of the spirit – to a superficial life that does not raise too many questions; Just as in the same way we are more attracted to an easy, light and comfortable “faith”, which never questions anything.

As for the second point, on the contrary, we have soulless rationalism, into which today we run the risk of falling again, conditioned by technocratic culture. When man is reduced to mere matter, when reality is forced to the limits of what is visible; When reason is only mathematical and “laboratory” reason, then wonder is lost, that inner wonder that pushes us to look beyond, to look at the sky, to unravel that hidden truth that confronts fundamental questions disappears: why? What do I exist? What is the meaning of my life? What is the final objective and the ultimate goal of this journey? Romano Guardini asked: «Why does man, despite all the progress, remain unknown to himself and become increasingly so? Because he has lost the key to understanding the essence of man. The law of our truth says that man recognizes himself only from above, above him, from God, because only from God does he bring his existence” (Prayer and truth).

Dear teachers, against the weariness of the spirit and soulless rationalism, let us also learn to pray like Iabés: “Lord, broaden our borders.” Let us ask that God bless our work, at the service of a culture capable of facing today’s challenges. The Holy Spirit that we have received as a gift prompts us to search, to open the spaces of our thinking and our actions, until guiding us to the full truth (cf. Jn 16:13). We are certain – as the rector told us at the beginning – “that we still do not know everything”, but, at the same time, it is precisely this limitation that should always push them to move forward, helping them to keep the flame of research and to continue being like an open window to today’s world.

And, for this purpose, I want to say sincerely thank you. Thank you because, by expanding your borders, you have become a welcoming space for many refugees who have been forced to flee their lands, in the midst of countless dangers, enormous difficulties and sometimes atrocious suffering. We have recently seen, in the video, a very moving testimony. And while some ask that the borders be strengthened, you, as a university community, have expanded your own boundaries, you have opened your arms to welcome these people marked by pain, to help them study and grow.

This is what we need, a culture that expands the borders, that is not “sectarian” or puts itself above others, but, on the contrary, gets into the mass of the world, providing it with the good yeast, which contributes for the good of humanity. This task, this “greatest hope,” is entrusted to you.

A theologian originally from this land, son and professor at this University, has stated: “We are the burning bush that allows God to manifest himself” (A. Gesché, God to think, Salamanca 2010). Keep the flame of this fire lit, expand the borders. Be restless seekers of truth and never extinguish passion, so as not to give in to the apathy of thought. Be protagonists in generating a culture of inclusion, compassion, attention to the weakest and the great challenges of the world in which we live.

And please don’t forget to pray for me. Thank you.