‘Truth is the goal and personal relationship the path to achieving it,’ Pope tells Italian religion teachers

April 27, 2026

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CWN Editor's Note: Pope Leo XIV received thousands of Italian religion teachers in Paul VI Audience Hall on April 25 and told them that “truth is the goal and personal relationship the path to achieving it.”

“In the study of the inexhaustible pages of the Bible,” said Pope Leo, “we come to know Christ, the Son of God made man, the revelation of the Father’s face and the perfect model of humanity. In this way, you make accessible to the younger generations, with full respect for everyone’s freedom, what might otherwise remain incomprehensible and vague.”

The Pope added:

Man cannot live without truth and authentic meaning, and the young, although they may at times seem apathetic or insensitive, behind a façade of apparent indifference they often actually conceal the restlessness and suffering of those who “feel too much” and too intensely, without being able to put a name to what they are experiencing.

Teaching, therefore, means forming people to listen to their hearts, and thereby to inner freedom and the capacity for critical thinking, according to dynamics in which faith and reason do not ignore one another, nor indeed oppose one another, but are travelling companions in the humble and sincere search for truth. For this reason, education requires the patience to sow without expecting immediate results, respecting the pace at which a person grows. And above all—as Newman teaches—it requires love.

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