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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