‘Truth in charity’ is an academic community’s vocation, Pope writes in message to Bolivian university
May 14, 2026
In a message marking the sixtieth anniversary of the San Pablo Bolivian Catholic University, Pope Leo XIV reflected on the university’s motto, Veritas in Caritate (Truth in Charity).
“For the Christian tradition, truth is not only an intellectual ideal or an abstract concept, but finds its identity in the very person of Jesus Christ, who reveals himself precisely as ‘the Truth’ (Jn 14:6) who ‘fully reveals man to himself and reveals to him the sublimity of his vocation’ (Gaudium et Spes, 22),” Pope Leo XIV wrote in the Spanish-language message, dated February 19 and made public by the Vatican today.
“From this perspective, truth, sought with intellectual rigor and scientific honesty, finds in charity its horizon and its ultimate criterion, since telling the truth is, for the Christian, an act of love that edifies, heals and directs the person towards his fullness,” the Pope continued. “Recognizing that Truth has a personal face and a relational dimension preserves knowledge from becoming an instrument of domination, exclusion or mere utility, orienting it, instead, to the service of justice and the dignity of every human being, especially the most vulnerable.”
The Pontiff added:
Thus, Veritas in Caritate expresses the vocation of an academic community that aspires to integrate knowledge and life, intelligence and ethics, faith and reason, academic excellence and social responsibility. Research, teaching and professional training are conceived as services and not as self-referential ends, and are ordered to the construction of a more humane, more just society, and a society more open to transcendence, where knowledge is always at the service of the person.
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