The Pope met with a couple of groups yesterday:
First, astronomers:
This morning Pope Benedict received the faculty and students of the Eleventh Vatican Observatory Summer School in an audience. He exhorted the amateur astronomers to form their faith and their reason so that they can rise to the contemplation of the truth.
The Vatican Observatory was founded in 1891 at the papal summer residence—Castel Gandolfo—and is one of the oldest astronomical institutions in the world.
The Holy Father provided a vision for the scientists-in-training saying, “Since its establishment, the Vatican Observatory has sought to demonstrate the Church’s desire to embrace, encourage and promote scientific study, on the basis of her conviction that "faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth" (Fides et Ratio).
This summer’s program, which is devoted to the study of the study of Extra-solar Planets, will be taught by the Jesuit Fathers and Brothers who staff the Observatory.
The Pope reminded the students that they should get more out of their studies than scientific knowledge. “In addition to your demanding research, however, you will have a precious opportunity to learn together with students from twenty-two different countries. The wide variety of your backgrounds and cultural traditions can be a source of great enrichment to you all.”
“In the days to come, may you find spiritual consolation in the study of the stars that "shine to delight their Creator (Bar 3:34)." Upon you and your families I cordially invoke God’s blessings of wisdom, joy and peace.”
An educational emergency, the degradation of schools, unprepared families, the negative influences of media – Pope Benedict XVI denounced every phase of the "crisis in education" within a society of ‘relativism’ and called on all the components of the Catholic Church to "work together as a network" developing every ‘useful synergy’ in trying to contain the crisis.
The theologian Pope addressed these issues last night at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in opening a convention of the Diocese of Rome on ‘education in the faith.’
In his usual manner of examining the problems of society today, Benedict XVI pointed to "the growing difficulty in transmitting to the new generations the fundamental values of existence and of right conduct", saying: "A society and a culture which too often make a creed of relativism end up losing the light of truth and by doubting the goodness of life and the validity of those relationships and commitments that go with it."
Thus, he says, it becomes difficult to propose to young people ‘rules of life’ and the very ‘meaning’ of human existence – a difficulty promoted and accentuated by the mass media "which inspire a mentality and culture characterized by the false and destructive exaltation – or rather, profanation – of the body and of sexuality."
The first consequence, he says: "Education tends to be reduced to simply transmitting specific abilities, while seeking to satisfy the desire for happiness in the youth by spoiling them with consumer objects which give fleeting gratification."
Next consequence: "Parents as well as teachers are fatally tempted to abdicate their own educative tasks and even failing to understand the role, or better, the mission entrusted to them in this respect."
But such abdication is unacceptable, and in fact, the Pope points out, a demand for better education is growing – among parents "anguished about the future of their children", teachers who "live through the sad experience of the degradation of their schools," and society itself which "sees the very bases of coexistence placed in doubt."
Therefore, the Pope, said, "the commitment of the Church to educate (its young) in the faith" now assumed the value of a ‘contribution’ to overcoming "the educational crisis, raising barriers against the mistrust and strange self-hate that seems to characterize society today."
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