Vatican City, Mar 20, 2005 / 22:00 pm
In a message read by Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, substitute for the Secretariat of State today, the Holy Father told participants of the 38th University Congress (UNIV) to “renew the languages of art and culture.”
The theme of this years gathering is "Projecting Culture: the language of music." Also present at today’s meeting, held in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall, was Bishop Javier Echevarria Rodriguez, prelate of the personal prelature of Opus Dei.
Nearly 4,000 students and teachers from more than 200 universities throughout the world gathered today to participate in the formative activities promoted by the prelature of Opus Dei.
"Music, like all artistic languages," wrote the Holy Father in his message, "brings man closer to God. ... Yet at the same time, art can on occasion transmit a conception of man, of love and of happiness that does not correspond to the truth of God's design.”