Madrid, Spain, May 20, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Archbishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, said this week in Valencia, Spain, that religion is important for the intellectual development of children.
Speaking with reporters, Archbishop Sanchez said that eliminating religion from the life of a child is “like taking away his bread, his nourishment.”
“Throughout the history of mankind,” he said, “the profound questions raised by religion are what have provided the greatest incentive for the development of the sciences, philosophy and knowledge.” Therefore, he said religion is a “fundamental necessity.”
Archbishop Sanchez said he was in favor of treating religion the same as other subjects in school curricula. “If you do not require certain things from young people, they don’t study,” he said.