Catholic academic explains challenges of university life to young people

Lima, Peru, Jan 27, 2010 / 23:18 pm

The Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Pedro Morande Court, was in Lima this week for a meeting with young people about the various challenges they face in college.

Professor Morande, who is also a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, warned students that the fact that the university is seen more as a business than as an educational community “is attack on the life of the university itself.” Because of this, “knowledge” is often confused with wisdom.

“The tragedy is that we end up knowing more and more irrelevant things.”

The mission of the university, Morande said, is keeping the tradition of wisdom alive. As John Paul II said, “If the faith does not become culture, it is weak faith.” The university needs to go from “knowledge to wisdom.” “Culture is what cultivates us,” he said. “When we are challenged by knowledge, it broadens the horizon of our interior freedom. It makes us more human,” he said.

Morande encouraged college students to remember that the heart of the university experience is to “search for the truth, find it and communicate it.” “It’s about keeping alive the experience of the truth (…) The measure of the culture of a university is whether or not knowledge transforms us: when it does not transform us we are in the mentality of a business (…) But the business aspect always leaves holes, openings so that the authentic university experience can be had,” he said.