Pope Leo XIV on Friday urged academics to “think the faith” in order to confront what he called an increasingly pervasive “cultural emptiness.”
The pope spoke at a ceremony inaugurating the academic year at Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University, the ecclesiastical university under the direct control of the Holy See, an event that brought together more than a thousand students and professors.
In his address, Pope Leo XIV highlighted what he called the Lateran University’s unique and “altogether special” bond with the successor of Peter, a characteristic that he said has shaped its identity and mission from the beginning. He recalled the contributions of various pontiffs since its founding in 1773 and described the Lateran as “a privileged center where the teaching of the universal Church is elaborated, received, developed, and contextualized.”
“Today we urgently need to think the faith so that we can express it in contemporary cultural settings and challenges, but also to counter the risk of cultural emptiness, which in our time is becoming increasingly invasive,” he said.
The pope noted that the faculty of theology is called “to reflect on the deposit of faith and to manifest its beauty and credibility in today’s diverse contexts,” while the study of philosophy “must be oriented toward the search for truth.”
Turning to the university’s canon and civil law faculties, he encouraged students and professors “to consider administrative processes in depth, an urgent challenge for the Church.” He also pointed to the cycles of study in peace sciences and ecology and the environment, instituted by Pope Francis, describing them as “an essential part of the Church’s recent magisterium.”
The “formation of people,” he said, is at the heart of the Lateran University’s mission. For this reason, he urged its members to keep “their eyes and hearts directed toward the future” and to face contemporary challenges with courage.
The pope encouraged the academic community to be a “prophetic sign of communion and fraternity,” and said authentic academic formation serves as an antidote to individualism, self-reference, prejudice, and what he called “solitary leadership.”
He also underlined the importance of scientific rigor, noting that it is “often not appreciated as it should be” because of “deeply rooted prejudices that unfortunately persist even within the ecclesial community.” Scientific research and intellectual effort, he said, are indispensable. “We need well-prepared and competent laypeople and priests,” he added.
“The purpose of the educational and academic process must be to form people who, guided by the logic of gratuity and the passion for truth and justice, can become builders of a new, fraternal, and solidary world,” the pope said.
He concluded by insisting that Catholics must take seriously the task of “thinking in faith,” and invited the university to explore the mystery of Christian belief with passion and in dialogue with the world.
“The Lateran University holds a special place in the pope’s heart,” he said, “and the pope encourages you to dream big, to imagine new spaces for the Christianity of the future, and to work with joy so that all may discover Christ and in him find the fullness they seek.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
