Catholic World News News Feature

True vs. false wisdom: Pope's exhortation to pontifical universities October 31, 2008

True wisdom means "following the mind of Christ," Pope Benedict XVI told students as the pontifical universities of Rome formally opened their academic years.

The Holy Father spoke to students and professors in the Vatican basilica on October 30, after Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, the prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, presided at an evening Mass.

When St. Paul exhorted Christians to "become fools" in the eyes of the world, he was not expressing an anti-intellectual attitude, the Pope said. Rather he was encouraging the faithful to break away from "a way of living and seeing things divorced from God, following dominant opinions according to the criteria of success and power." That sort of thinking fosters the sin of pride and impedes the action of the Spirit, the Pope observed.

St. Paul "denounced the poison of false wisdom, which is human pride," the Pope continued. It is presumption, not the pursuit of wisdom, that becomes an intellectual snare. To guard against that tradition, the Christian scholar should make every effort to conform his thinking the "wisdom of Christ through the Church and in the Church." The gift of faith and the virtue of humility allow for the action of grace, which "purifies us of false wisdom."

The Holy Father encouraged students and faculty members to "fervently dedicate ourselves to intellectual work, free of the temptation of pride, and boast always and only in the Lord."