VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - N° 68
DATE 10-04-2014

Summary:
- ECCLESIASTICAL UNIVERSITIES ARE NOT MACHINES FOR PRODUCING THEOLOGIANS
AND PHILOSOPHERS
- POPE FRANCIS: HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS A WOUND TO HUMANITY
- DECLARATION OF COMMITMENT FROM THE HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SLAVERY CONFERENCE
- AUDIENCES

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 ECCLESIASTICAL UNIVERSITIES ARE NOT MACHINES FOR PRODUCING THEOLOGIANS AND
PHILOSOPHERS
Vatican City, 10 April 2014 (VIS) ? This morning Pope Francis received in
audience the professors, students and non-teaching staff of the Gregorian
Pontifical University, the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical
Oriental Institute. These institutions, brought together in a consortium by
Pope Pius XI in 1923, were entrusted to the Society of Jesus and the Holy
Father recalled the importance of collaboration between them in
?safeguarding historical memory and, at the same time, taking
responsibility for the present and looking to the future with creativity
and imagination?.
Pope Francis indicated two aspects that should characterise the task of the
members of the consortium, both teachers and students. The first is to
acknowledge the value of the place where they work and study ? the city and
above all the Church of Rome. ?There isa part and there is a present. There
are the roots of faith: the memories of the Apostles and the Martyrs; and
there is the ecclesial 'today', the current path of this Church which
presides over charity, the service of unity and universality. All this must
not be taken for granted! ? But at the same time you bring here the variety
of your Churches of origin and of your cultures. ? This offers a valuable
opportunity for growth in faith and in opening the mind and the heart to
the horizon of Catholicity. Within this horizon, the dialectic between
'centre' and 'periphery' takes on a form of its own, an evangelical form
according to the logic of a God who reaches the centre from the periphery,
to then return to the periphery?.
The second aspect was the relationship between study and spiritual life,
and which constitutes ?one of the challenges of our times: transmitting
knowledge and offering a key to a vital understanding, not anaccumulation
of unconnected notions. There is a need for a true evangelical hermeneutics
to better understand life, the world, and humankind, not a synthesis but a
spiritual atmosphere of research and certainty based on the truths of
reason and faith. Philosophy and theology enable us to acquire the
convictions that structure and strengthen intelligence and enlighten will ?
but all this is fruitful only if it is done with an open mind and on one's
knees. The theologian who is satisfied with his complete and conclusive
thought is mediocre. A good theologian and philosopher is open, or
incomplete in thought, always open to the 'maius' of God and of the truth,
always in development. ? And the theologian who does not pray or does not
adore God ends up sinking into the most repugnant narcissism. And this is
an ecclesiastical sickness. Narcissism in theologians and in thinkers is
harmful and repugnant?.
The Holy Father continued, ?The aim of studyin any pontifical university is
ecclesial. Research and study are to be integrated with personal and
community life, with missionary commitment, with fraternal charity and
sharing with the poor, with attention to inner life in relation to the
Lord. Your Institutes are not machines for producing theologians and
philosophers; they are communities in which one grows, and growth occurs in
the family?. The university family is ?indispensable for creating an
attitude of concrete humanity and wisdom, making students into people
capable of building humanity, of transmitting the truth in a human
dimension, of knowing that if there lacks the goodness and beauty of
belonging to a working family one ends up as an intellectual without
talent, an ethicist without goodness, a thinker lacking the splendour of
beauty and simply 'adorned' with formalism. Respectful and daily contact
with the laboriousness and the witness of the men and women in your
institutions will give you the quota of realism necessary for your science
to be human and not merely that of the laboratory?, he concluded.

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 POPE FRANCIS: HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS A WOUND TO HUMANITY
Vatican City, 10 April 2014 (VIS) ? ?An open wound on the body of
contemporary society, a scourge upon the body of Christ. It is a crime
against humanity?: the Holy Father thus described human trafficking in his
English-language address to the participants in the ?Second International
Conference on Combating Human Trafficking: Church and Law Enforcement in
Partnership?, which took place from 9 to 10 April in the Vatican, organised
by the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales. ?This is an important
meeting, a gesture on the part of the Church and people of good will who
want to cry out, 'Enough!'?, he added.
?The very fact of our being here to combine our efforts means that we want
our strategies and areas of expertise to be accompanied and reinforced by
the mercy of the Gospel, by closeness to the men and women who are victims
of this crime?, said thePope. ?Our meeting today includes law enforcement
authorities, who are primarily responsible for combating this tragic
reality by a vigorous application of the law. It also includes humanitarian
and social workers, whose task it is to provide victims with welcome, human
warmth and the possibility of building a new life. These are two different
approaches, but they can and must go together. To dialogue and exchange
views on the basis of these two complementary approaches is important.
Conferences such as this are extremely helpful, and, I would say, much
needed?.
Before concluding, the Holy Father thanked the participants for their
collaboration and commented on the importance of the fact that, ?one year
after your first meeting, you have regrouped from throughout the world in
order to advance your common efforts?.

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 DECLARATION OF COMMITMENT FROM THE HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SLAVERY CONFERENCE
Vatican City, 10 April 2014 (VIS) ? The Declaration of Commitment following
the ?Second International Conference on Combating Human Trafficking: Church
and Law Enforcement in Partnership?, which took place in the Vatican's
Casina Pio IV, is published in full below:
?On this date 10 April 2014 in the Vatican, senior law enforcement
officials and representatives of the Catholic Church met to plan ways of
together combating human trafficking and slavery.
The Holy Father Pope Francis has endorsed this event and has stated:
?I exhort the international community to adopt an even more unanimous and
effective strategy against human trafficking, so that in every part of the
world, men and women may no longer be used as a means to an end, and that
their inviolable dignity may always be respected.
Assenior law enforcement officials within the international community, we
commit to eradicate the scourge of this serious criminal activity, which
abuses vulnerable people. This conference is part, of a process where we
work together on the international stage to develop strategies in
prevention, pastoral care and re-integration, placing the victim at the
centre of all we do.
I make a personal commitment to developing partnerships with the Church and
civil society to bring to justice those who are responsible for these
horrendous crimes and to alleviate the suffering of the victims?.

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 AUDIENCES
Vatican City, 10 April 2014 (VIS) ? Today, the Holy Father received in audience:
- Zvonimir Jankuloski, the new ambassador of the ex-Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia to the Holy See, presenting his credential letters.
- Archbishop Peter Rajic, apostolic nuncio in Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen, Qatar
and United Arab Emirates, apostolic delegate in the Arabian Peninsula.

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