Pope Leo to Catholic University: “Truth Finds Its Identity in the Person of Jesus Christ.”

May 14, 2026: Reflecting on the role of universities, Pope Leo XIV said truth finds its identity in the person of Jesus Christ, stressing that knowledge must always remain at the service of the human person, in a message marking the 60th anniversary of the Bolivian Catholic University “San Pablo”. The Pope also highlighted the mission of Catholic universities in promoting human dignity, preserving cultural heritage, and fostering integral human formation.

“In a cultural context marked by the fragmentation of knowledge, relativism, and the instrumentalisation of understanding, [Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical] Veritas in Caritate continues to serve as a criterion for academic and pastoral discernment, and as a demanding programme for the future, in which you are called to be ‘the light of the world’,” Pope Leo XIV said.

Describing the university’s 60th anniversary as an opportunity to recognise “a fruitful trajectory of service to the Church and society,” the Pope stressed that a university is “not merely a centre for technical training nor a mere space for producing utilitarian knowledge.”

Rather, he said, it is “an academic community which, in a rigorous and critical way, contributes to the protection and development of human dignity and cultural heritage.”

The Holy Father noted that universities exist to promote the integral formation of the person, explaining that true education aims at forming individuals in the pursuit of both their ultimate vocation and the good of society.

Within this framework, intellectual and moral faculties, responsible freedom, and commitment to the common good are “harmoniously cultivated,” he said, forming people capable of thinking “with rigour, dialoguing with openness, and acting with integrity.”

Pope Leo XIV also reflected on the significance of the university’s motto, Veritas in Caritate, calling it “an eloquent summary of the university’s mission, undertaken from the perspective of faith.”

“For the Christian tradition,” he said, truth “is not merely an intellectual ideal or an abstract concept,” but “finds its identity in the person of Jesus Christ Himself.”

“From this perspective, truth sought with intellectual rigour and scientific honesty finds in charity its horizon and ultimate criterion,” the Pope added.

He explained that for Christians, “speaking the truth is an act of love that builds up, heals, and guides the person toward fulfilment.”

The Pope further warned against knowledge becoming “a tool of domination, exclusion, or mere utility,” stressing instead that it must serve justice and uphold the dignity of every human being, especially the most vulnerable.

Recalling the deeper meaning of Veritas in Caritate, Pope Leo XIV said it expresses the vocation of an academic community that seeks to integrate knowledge and life, intellect and ethics, faith and reason, academic excellence and civic responsibility.

He stressed that research, teaching, and professional formation should never become self-referential ends, but remain directed toward “the construction of a more humane, just, and transcendentally open society, where knowledge is always at the service of the person.”

The Pope concluded by encouraging the university community to allow Veritas in Caritate to guide its discernment and entrusted its academic and communal mission to the maternal intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Seat of Wisdom.

Courtesy: Vatican News