Pope Leo XIV: Truth finds its identity in the person of Jesus Christ

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

"In a cultural context marked by the fragmentation of knowledge, relativism, and the instrumentalization of understanding, [Benedict XVI's encyclical] Veritas in Caritate continues to serve as a criterion for academic and pastoral discernment, and as a demanding program for the future, in which you are called to be 'the light of the world'.”

Pope Leo XIV stressed this in the message he sent on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Bolivian Catholic University “San Pablo.”

The Pope began observing that commemorating sixty years allows us to recognize a fruitful trajectory of service to the Church and society.

He stressed that a university, in its deepest identity, "is not merely a center for technical training nor a mere space for producing utilitarian knowledge," but above all, 'an academic community which, in a rigorous and critical way, contributes to the protection and development of human dignity and cultural heritage...'"

True education must promote formation of human person

The Holy Father noted that universities exist to promote the integral formation of the person, since true education "aims at the formation of the human person in the pursuit of his ultimate end and of the good of the societies of which, as man, he is a member..."

Within this horizon, he said, intellectual and moral faculties, responsible freedom, and commitment to the common good are "harmoniously cultivated," forming people capable of thinking "with rigour, dialoguing with openness, and acting with integrity."

Thus, Pope Leo said it is particularly meaningful to understand the academic institution's motto Veritas in Caritate, noting this expression is "an eloquent summary of the university’s mission, undertaken from the perspective of faith."

Truth finds its identity in the person of Jesus Christ

"For the Christian tradition," the Holy Father recalled that truth "is not merely an intellectual ideal or an abstract concept."

Rather, truth, he said, "finds its identity in the person of Jesus Christ Himself, who reveals Himself as the Truth, and who fully reveals man to himself and shows him his supreme vocation."

"From this perspective, truth sought with intellectual rigor and scientific honesty," he said, "finds in charity its horizon and ultimate criterion."

The reason for this, he noted, is that "for a Christian, speaking the truth is an act of love that builds up, heals, and guides the person toward fulfillment."

The Pope stressed how important it is to recognize that Truth has a personal and relational dimension.

Such recognition, he insisted, "preserves knowledge from becoming a tool of domination, exclusion, or mere utility," and instead "directs it toward the service of justice and the dignity of every human being, especially the most vulnerable."

Knowledge always at service of the human person

The Pope recalled that Veritas in Caritate expresses the vocation of an academic community that seeks to integrate knowledge and life, intellect and ethics, faith and reason, academic excellence and civic responsibility.

He stressed that research, teaching, and professional formation are not to be understood as services and not as self-referential ends, but as being "oriented toward the construction of a more humane, just, and transcendentally open society, where knowledge is always at the service of the person."

Pope Leo XIV concluded by encouraging them to let Veritas in Caritate guide their discernment and entrusting the academic, formative, and communal activities of the university to the maternal intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Seat of Wisdom.