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

"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...'"

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."