Vatican City, Jun 9, 2008 / 08:25 am
Saturday at the Vatican, the Holy Father received college educators participating in the sixth European Symposium of University Professors. In his address, the Pontiff emphasized the vital role of philosophy in understanding modernity.
The symposium, which was held in Rome on June 4 – 7, focused on the theme: "Broadening the Horizons of Reason. Prospects for Philosophy."
Benedict XVI began his address by noting that 2008 marks the tenth anniversary of John Paul II's Encyclical "Fides et ratio." He recalled that when it was published, fifty philosophy professors in Rome “expressed their gratitude to the Pope with a declaration underlining the importance of re-launching the study of philosophy in universities and schools."
Reflecting on the years since the encyclical, the Pope mentioned that events which have occurred in the past ten years have “delineated more clearly the historical and cultural stage onto which philosophical research is called to enter. Indeed, the crisis of modernity is not a symptom of the decline of philosophy; on the contrary, philosophy must embark upon new lines of research in order to understand the true nature of that crisis."