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On the Role of the

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CATHOLIC

UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE

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Two Addresses

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POPE PAUL VI

January 3, 1964

September 3, 1963

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Translation provided by N.C.W.C. News Service

1964

Write for free publications list to:

National Catholic Welfare Conference

1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W. • Washington, D. C. 20005



ON THE ROLE

OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY GRADUATE

POPE PAUL VI

Address given to a group of Italian University Graduates

January 3
,
1964

It is fitting for us to greet in the language of a teacher

this assembly that previously we greeted and shall greet

in ritual language.

Liturgical action allows us, rather suggests to us, this

change from sacred language proper to that which is dis-

coursive and instructive: from prayer to reflection and

conversation.

Greetings to the Different Groups

We take advantage of this to welcome each of the
groups that are part of this assembly. Let us first mention,

therefore, the participants to the eleventh National Con-

gress of the Youth Tourist Center: we are very happy to

welcome you, beloved youths, and to express our satisfac-

tion to the promoters of your organization and of your

activity.

Some of them have been known to us for sometime

and we know with what spirit they have originated and

promoted youth tourism animated by a Christian sense,

and with what constancy, dedication, permeation into the

pedagogic, social, cultural, moral, recreational excellence of

youth tourism, in a word, we know how bravely they have

worked, so that, here before God, we feel obliged to praise

their efforts and to encourage an activity which responds

to the customs of our times and is so promising for a

modern and Christian formation of our youth.

3



The presence of these members of the assembly, the

affection we hold for them, the importance of their plans,

the seriousness of their aims, should deserve a special

speech. However, if lack of time and the nature of this See

do not allow us to do so, may it suffice them to know how
happy we are for this meeting with them, how sincere is

our wish for the good outcome of their assembly, and how

affectionate is our blessing for them and their good activity.

We must also greet the group of nuns who are techni-
cal Assistants to Catholic Action Young Women, who have

come to Rome for a course of study and updating: their
fervor is known to us; we know the goodness of their

services and we thank them from our heart, while at the

same time we bear them particularly in mind at this hour

of prayer and benediction.

Also admitted to this holy ceremony is a notable group

of regional, provincial and zonal leaders of the Italian

Catholic Union of High School Teachers, together with

their regional ecclesiastic advisers.

We know of the good that this union has set out to
do and we appreciate the activity it promotes, the needs

which it answers, the results it achieves: let us also extend

to these valiant champions of the Christian spirit in the

school, our affectionate greeting and warm encouragement.

We say the same to the other faithful and pilgrims ad-
mitted to this holy function.

Our greeting goes forth next to the Italian Catholic

graduates, who are gathered in Rome for their annual

congress: we owe it chiefly to their loving insistence and

to our desire to prove to them our particular benevolence,

to have included this solemn liturgical celebration on the

eve of our pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Thus, may our Catholic graduates here present and

those whom they represent here know how dear this meet-
ing is to us, even though it may cause a bit of anxiety to

our modest person in whom, for the first time, they wish

to acknowledge and honor the formidable apostolic office to

which Providence has called us.

4



May they know how unchanged remains in our heart

the friendship that links us to many of them and that fills

our heart with esteem and faith in their movement.

May they know how hopefully we look to the place and

activity they have assumed in the Italian Catholic field and

how we pray to God, particularly at this Mass, for all their

spiritual, organizational, cultural and apostolic growth.

The Pope and Graduates

Dear Catholic graduates: We will tell why your move-
ment is of such lively interest to us outside of affective

reasons that spring from many remembrances on our part

as to its origins and vicissitudes.

It is because we see in you cultured men, trained by

the best schools of our country, men who, once the univer-

sity courses ended, did not terminate their studies, pro-

fessionally and generally, and who have continued to think,

to individualize the problems of our times, to define, to solve

them, at least conceptually in the light of those Christian

principles in which—whether during the university years,
whether in succeding years, in those of the full experience

of life—you are used to recognize the source of the truth
of the highest wisdom.

(You are) men who comprehend the dignity and

needs of culture; men who never tire of learning and re-

flecting and who are never doubtful of possessing the con-

necting thread of the vital truths.

Furthermore, you are industrious, practical men. It

is not only a speculative ability, as a remaining bulwark

honored by the school years, that characterizes you. You

are also characterized by an operative ability, that of your

specific profession, that of activity, which to nearly all of

you is intense and weighty, dutiful, from which you re-

ceive your bread and that of your families as well as the

place you occupy in society.

(You are) positive men, we could say, projected into

the temporal realities, men true and modern, and let us
add, also brave and good men.



Now, we derive deep interest from the fact that living

men as you are—characterized by your respective secular
activities—profess in like manner and jointly our religion;
pray and endeavor to pray in serious and elect manner,

and do not doubt, in fact desire, to draw from the sources

of religious truth and of grace their profound spiritual life.

Also from the fact that such men are faithful to the

Church of God, not through occasional and formal respect,

but by means of a stout heart, as sons, as members that

know and love; who do not deny before society their

Catholic Faith, in fact they practice it; give evidence of it,

uphold it with simplicity and character, with humility and

force if necessary, and who, by living everyone’s life, that

of the laity, say that they find in their adherence to the

same Catholic Faith an irreplaceable nourishment, an un-

failing comfort, thus they recommend it to others and try,

as much as possible, to uphold and spread it in its higher

principles, in its more serious requirements, in the environ-

ments where life has placed them.

It is by this fact, in short, so simple to state and yet

so complex to define, that men like you call themselves,

and are, Catholics.

This is the reason of our good will and esteem for you;

because you represent a phenomenom which the religious

and moral crisis of our society puts in significant evidence:

you are graduates and you are Catholics; therefore you

are at an eminent level in the social scale, not so much

because of the honor that derives to you therefrom, but

rather because of the duties that pertain to you and be-

cause of the responsibility which you must meet; you bring

to the said level your firm and serene adherence to Christ

and to his Church.

This is the place, this is the time when such adherence

must, in the silence of your heart, engage each of you, and

must be expressed, as this holy meeting intends, by evident

confirmation.

An extrinsic circumstance which at once acquires inner

significance urges the Movement of Catholic Graduates to

6



fix such a definition into consciences and aims.

This circumstance derives from the fact that we find

ourselves in the Basilica of St. Peter which, to all of its

spiritual inspirations now adds that of being fitted as the

hall for the ecumenical council.

We know that you have chosen as the subject of your
congress the ecumenical council. And this is why the ex-

terior circumstance offers motive to strengthen the merit of

the analysis, just mentioned, of your characterization.

This is a two-term definition that seems to interpret

one of the characteristic problems of the ecumenical council,

that of the laity in the Church of God and their present

apostolic function.

The Laity in the Church

You know that our doctrine recognizes participation

of the faithful layman in the spiritual priesthood of Christ

and therefore his ability, in fact his responsibility in the

exercise of the apostolate which has resolved itself into

different concepts and forms adequate to the possibilities

and nature of the life itself of the layman, absorbed in

temporal realities, but furthermore his is an apostolate

that imposes itself as a mission proper to the present times.

We speak of “consecratio mundi” (consecration of the
world) and there are attributed to the layman special pre-

rogatives in the sphere of the earthly and secular life, a

sphere for the possible spreading of the light and grace of

Christ, precisely because he can act over the secular world

from within, as a direct participant in its make-up and

experience, while the priest, who is to a large extent

separated from secular life, cannot, generally, exert in-

fluence over it except in an external way, through his

words and ministry.

This observation is becoming increasingly important

the more we become aware that the secular world is, we

might almost say, simply the world, and that it neglects hav-

ing normal and active relations with the religious life which

does not easily succeed in making its salutary voice heard

7



in the immense zones of the secular life itself.

Thus we have also spoken of the Catholic laity as a

“bridge” between the Church and society, which has become

almost insensitive, not to say diffident and hostile, with

reference to religion and also simply with reference to

Christianity and its very basic principles.

Our Catholic laity is vested with his function, which

has become extraordinarily important, and in a sense in-

dispensable; it acts as a bridge. And this is not to insure

an interference on the part of the Church, a control in the

field of the temporal realities and in the framework of the

affairs of this world, but in order that our terrestrial

world be not left without the message of Christian salva-

tion.

That function entrusted to the laity is not a properly

qualified ministry, but an activity shaped in most diverse

ways, aimed at establishing contacts between the sources

of religious and secular life. We could speak, in approxi-
matively expressive terms, of contacts between the Church

and society; between the ecclesial community and the tem-

poral community.

The more so the ecclesial community is restored and

becomes concentrated in the conscience of the faithful and

in the exercise of their specific activity, the less the temporal

and secular community can enjoy the benefits of the

Christian religion, that would also be intended for it.

Dualism can be stressed to such a point as to make

of the ecclesial community a closed cenacle on the one

hand, remote from the society in which it too finds itself

and paralyzed in its doctrinal, as well as pedagogic, charit-

able and social efficiency; rendering, on the other hand,

the secular world insensitive to religious problems, the

greatest problems of life, and therefore exposed to the re-

current danger of believing itself to be self-sufficient, with

all the sorrowful consequences which this illusion finally

entails.

The bridge is necessary. And you, the Catholic grad-

8



uates, are the bridge. Not you alone, because many of the

faithful in the Catholic laity, whether or not organized,

fulfill this function, that of placing the religious life of the

Church in communication with the secular life of temporal

society.

A Higher Unity

You particularly, we were saying, are more apt to

determine in yourselves the duplication of psychology which

is claimed as belonging to the ecclesial society and to

temporal society.

We must be conscious of this two-fold citizenship; and
while ordinarily the Catholic layman pays no attention to

it, and adheres without difficulty to one or the other, you

are better able to experience in your soul and then in your

exterior behavior, what an important thing it is to simul-

taneously belong to two distinct societies that in our times

have so greatly vindicated their reciprocal autonomy and

have so greatly developed respective means of thought and

action so different from each other.

To be both the faithful and the laity provokes today a

characteristic spiritual problem, difficult to solve, though

of great fecundity and of great merit.

It is, we think, your problem, which surely must be

resolved into a higher unity, in a genial and harmonic

synthesis, but that now poses itself with increasing sensi-

tivity and at times a certain inner discomfort, because

everyone understands that the solution cannot be found

in suppressing one of the two terms in question, precisely

when they come in conflict: the faithful layman cannot

forget that he is a man of this world, exactly to remain a

participating member in the communion of the Mystical

Body.

Neither can the man of this world neglect every
memory and every pledge of the Christian conscience in

order to be free to devote himself wholly to the demands

of his secular profession.

Unity of psychology, of mentality, of conscience, con-

9



duct, is often instead obtained, in our times, through this

unhappy method of simplification of the complex reality of

life; a simplification which, after all, is not such, because

to suppress does not mean to solve. Problems remain and

form the torment of consciences and the disquietude of

social life.

The Two Societies

Here then is your function. It begins in clarifying the

ideas that surround such a two-fold society; the “ecclesia”

society and the “civitas” society and in shaping the exact

mentality that one and the other respectively require.

It might appear, at first glance, that this could deter-

mine in consciences a dualism and almost a contrast. An
examination of reality, as well as the experience in general

of every good Catholic who is a good citizen, shows that a

contrast exists only for those who want to create it, not

for those who understand how the gemination of psycho-

logy, which we mentioned, occurs with reference to

societies that are not identical, but analogous, that is to say

developed on different planes, which can and must comple-

ment each other.

Also how such gemination possesses the secret of

legitimate freedom of conscience and of action on the one

hand and the possibility of infusing in the autonomous

temporal framework a dignity and a wealth of moral

energies which it could not achieve by itself alone.

It is thus that your function unfolds, after having ac-

knowledged the two citizenships, the ecclesial and the tem-

poral, to which it is your fortune to belong, bringing in

other words in the professional field your Christian evidence

and bringing in the field of the Catholic life your secular

testimony.

This last affirmation might appear new and daring,

while that of the Christian evidence brought into the secu-

lar field has had not few and very beautiful examples,

especially where there is mention of the “maturity” of

the Catholic laity and of its mission in the present day

world.

10



However, rightly understood, also this assertion rela-

tive to the testimony of the temporal life, or better said:

relative to knowledge on the temporal life, to be brought

by you to the ecclesial sphere, sustains itself very well, to

the point of appearing to be what it basically is: that is,

a request on the part of the Church to its Catholic laity

to be informed on what the laity could say on countless

problems of the secular life, better known to the laity than

to the clergy.

Yes, you can be the most vigilant signalers, the most

diligent informants, the most qualified witnesses, the most

prudent counselors, the most sagacious lawyers, the most

generous collaborators as to many needs of our world, as
to many possibilities to do good, as to many questions, of
which your secular life gives you a direct experience and

an indisputable competence.

It may be said that from every sector of your pro-

fessions there can be pointed out to the teaching authority

and to the ministry of the Church new, very interesting

and ample problems that must not be treated empirically,

in the terms of old handbooks, but that need to be con-

sidered in the light of systematic and scientific research

that the Catholic laity can very usefully provide.

Action as Mission

As we said, you are the bridge. We could go on re-
calling how the said function among those most willing is

not limited to an external testimony, and to internal infor-

mation; in reference to some activities it becomes a true

proper collaboration in practical needs of great importance:

in the scholastic, administrative, legal, social, journalistic,

artistic, charitable field . . . How much does the Church
expect of you? Last year, during our trip to Africa, we had

occasion to visit some small, though well equipped hospi-

tals, directed by doctors and a health staff coming from

Italy: Catholic laymen who had decided to devote some

years of their youth and profession to Catholic missions!

Needless to say how useful are such services and the

moral nobility of such a Christian dedication. Nevertheless,

11



it does not seem superfluous to us to remind that mission

today means all places! Also that the Kingdom of God still

suffers today from the condition that placed a delicate,

though profound lament on Christ’s lips: “The harvest

indeed is great, but the laborers are few.” {Matt. 9, 37)

.

Of these things the Church speaks also to you today,

admirable Catholic laymen, particularly to you, beloved

graduates.

Of you and to you the ecumenical council speaks; of

the need, not only, that the Church has of you, but the more

so of the vocation for the fullness of a Christian life that

the Church reads into your souls; of the supernatural ele-

vation that she acknowledges to the faithful whose charac-

ter bears the sign of brother and soldier of Christ; of the

maturity and functions and responsibility to which you

aspire in the Catholic field and to which the Church edu-

cates and invites you; lastly of the trust that you deserve

and that the Church, in blessing you, places in you.

12



THE MISSION OF CATHOLIC CULTURE

POPE PAUL VI

Address to members of the Italian Catholic University

Federation

September 3
,
1963

The present audience creates for us, and we believe,

creates for you, a difficulty, not particularly of protocol,

but of psychology; that of finding an attitude of mind in

keeping with the nature and aims of this meeting.

The FUCI (Italian Catholic University Federation) is

meeting with the Pope; a FUCI that is no longer that of

yesteryear, that is to say of over thirty years ago, for the

reason that such a long period of time has changed and

renewed its ranks many times. Furthermore, the students

that today are part of it are different not only in persons,

but also in the moral and sentimental peculiarities; differ-

ent in feeling, in expressing itself, in its problems.

It is a FUCI that does not know its former ecclesias-

tical assistant who has remained outside of it since he left

it and who no longer desires to interfere in its developments.

Those who might remember him among the students

of that time, as shown by some faded and amusing photo-

graphs, would find it difficult to recognize him now, though

the features may not have been changed too greatly by the

pontifical robes that he wears.

Thus we do not have a direct and familiar knowledge

of you, nor do you have close personal knowledge of us.

Nevertheless, we think that each of us feels that the meet-

ing is necessary and desirable; it cannot but be spiritually

beneficial; and here is the difficulty which I mentioned:

what should the attitude, the form, the spirit, be?

13



Meeting of the Pope with the new FUCI

Dearly beloved: a propitious remembrance comes to

us, that of Pius XI, our great predecessor, who, when the

FUCI was still at the beginning of the second period of its

existence which was that of an orderly and systematic

activity, was so lavish toward it in goodness, in welcome,

in support, to become paternally and learnedly its educator

and to give rise to pleasant admiration on the part of those

who were fortunate to attend his audiences.

If so profound and stately a pontiff was pleased to

admit to his school the students of that time, joining the

elevation of his teachings to simplicity of manner, the

more so can we ourselves shorten the distances of this

meeting and solve the difficulty, which we mentioned, in

the simplicity of an analogous conversation, which will not

afford you, as in the times of Pius XI, the elation of rising

to the level of the teacher, but which will give to us the

satisfaction of putting ourselves again on the level of the

students, of the alumni, and to feel once more among them

as their friend and guide, as though we still were the

counselor of those past years.

We want to say that the conversation must be open
and easy and that, if many things have happened since then,

and you yourselves are new to this conversation, at least

one thing has not changed, and that is our feeling for the

beloved FUCI.

And without attempting to give to our word any

official tone or complete outline we now draw it precisely

from our heart.

Praise of the Ecclesiastical Assistant

Truly this is not the only thing that has remained

from that past period of ours which we cannot at this time

forget. There remained, for example, your assistant, who

succeeded us and who still remains with you, the excellent

and very dear Monsignor Franco Costa, here present, to

whom we must publicly express our gratitude for having

given to the Federation of Italian Catholic University Grad-

uates his student years (we remember having met him for

14



the first time in Genoa when he, as president of that

Catholic students’ association, succeeded in having a memor-

ial tablet of Pope Benedict XV, a former student of the

Atheneum of Genoa, placed on the big stairway of the said

university; also, at the unveiling of the tablet, when still

a student, he delivered a speech which was echoed by the

rector of the university).

Later, having become a priest, Father Costa was to

give to the Catholic university movement in Italy thirty

years of ministry, that have made of him the guide, friend

and brother of countless numbers of young students.

This prolonged, untiring, coherent spiritual assistance,

has assured the FUCI other elements of continuity that

have preserved its original features, and that make it still

today recognizable and valuable to one who has not been

able to follow its phases of natural development and of

proper transformation.

There has remained, next to the ecclesiastical assis-

tant and his valiant colleagues, a magnificent group, a

chain, in fact, of friendships, a true society of minds, that

has given the nation a network, modest in number, though

select in quality, of prepared and generous persons,

strengthened by the school of Christian thought, professing

the Catholic faith with simplicity and pride, happy to draw

from it principles and impulses to use in the service of

culture and society.

We are happy to greet here present some excellent
champions of such a group!

The University and University Life of Today

Here we should consider the conditions in which your

FUCI operates today, conditions new and different from

those of yesteryear, such for example, as the increased

number of the university population, the development of the

university school, the reflection of presentday democratic

life upon the university. This, however, is a study into

which we do not wish to delve further at this time.

It is sufficient for us to note, rather, some permanent

15



aspect of your presence in university life. We want simply to
note that a method of your own of taking part in university

life has been taking shape and is being developed, drawn

from the nature of the school itself that lifts knowledge and

study to their highest levels and invites the student to go

deeper into the basic reasons, which justify the validity not

only of the single sciences, but also of the thought that

explores and builds them.

The Catholic student finds himself in this respect in a

very fortunate situation, which could almost be called

privileged; because, from the heritage of truth that his

religious faith entrusts to him, he can at once draw that

simple and most fruitful nucleus of philosophical postulates

that, whether one wants or not, represent the foundation

of human rationality, and infuse at once into studies, cer-

tainty, trust, consistency, pondering and constructive

ability, and make available a repertory of concepts and ex-

pressions, that facilitates at the start the formulation of a

higher humanistic language and that give to scientific

language itself the capability of clear and unequivocal

definitions.

This, more than a method, is a program of integrating

the specialization of university study into a doctrinal frame-

work, that shall establish some logical relationship with the

various and immense fields of human knowledge and pre-

serve to university study an aspiration to unity of know-

ledge, not placed at once into the immediate, partial, unilat-

eral vision that tempts every scholar of a particular disci-

pline, but at the height of the supreme reasons of knowledge,

that have the virtues of synthesis, because they come close

to the fountain of truth, no longer just merely known but

creative and informative about the universal.

A superb program this, which the student will not be
able to unfold by himself and develop completely to its

highest point; but a wonderful and providential program as

anyone having knowledge of the nature of a university

school and one who knows the true conditions of the uni-

versity of our times can judge.

16



A program this, that the Catholic student has the
credit of drawing up by himself and for himself, thus offer-

ing the most priceless contribution that university study

and its pedagogy could wish for, that of spontaneous and

complementary collaboration in the university school, that

of training in deliberation, that of trust in the logic and

objectivity of thought, that of ideal, moral and spiritual

tension which needs youth in order to live in a beautiful

manner the years of the marvelous university springtime

that will never return again.

Wonderful and Providential Program

Your organization, we know, by its study groups, by its

courses in fundamental philosophy and religion studied

and loved in its authentic and essential forms, by its meet-

ings and congresses, by its aid to those who strive and

study the hardest, has by now acquired and developed the

method for activation of the program.

And even if, in a field as difficult and wide as univer-

sity study, what has already been done is always insufficient,

the fact that you have preserved the original purpose of the

activity of the FUCI, that you have pursued it with intelli-

gence and perseverance, that you have enriched it with

magnificent growth, means both conquests and promises

for Italian university life, and deserves our satisfaction

and praise.

Characteristics of the Catholic University Movement

We will say more: you have preserved the spirit of the
movement. Your spirit is difficult to define though easy to

recognize, at least in some principal characteristics, that

surely still form the object of your inner consideration and

of your jealous care. Among these characteristics we would
like to recognize the first, that is to say, love of the univer-

sity. This love shall not of course be your exclusive prerog-

ative; it will however assume in you an ideal nobility,

making it appear at times almost original.

Love of the university, first of all as a higher and

sacred institution, as the “alma mater,” to which it is a

duty and pride to render honor in its authority, in its tra-

17



ditions, in its edifices, in its constitutional dignity, which

cannot but be vested in interior autonomy and in upright

liberty, though this must always remain in the moral and

civil order that the university wants to be first in repre-

senting and promoting.

We have never heard that the FUCI, in its many years
of life which were not always happy and peaceful, has ever

failed in this fond devotion to the university, for those who

rule it, for its honor, for its prosperity. Rather we have had

to admit that the ranks of your students have always re-

mained faithful to the intrinsic law of the university, that is,

to the pledge of study and thought that it requires in order

to be what it is.

Your students have always remained faithful to the

spiritual and cultural vocation that the university defines

and cultivates in the drama of university problems for the

selection and orientation of the paths of thought; have re-

mained faithful to the sense of the seriousness and respon-

sibility of knowledge, to which the university feels itself

bound due to its own functions as a higher organ of culture

and of the social community.

They have above all remained faithful to the Catholic

religiousness that does not alter, does not stifle, but rather

awakens, guides and nourishes the search for truth as a

supreme goodness toward which the school inclines; and,

together with all these things, they have remained equally

faithful to the happy and lively expression of the youthful

energies that university life knows how to awaken.

Intellectual Advancement Enlightened by God

It might appear that such a concept of university life

is too intellectualistic and does not take into account mod-

ern tendencies that characterize it at present, or the easier

access to it by the young generation of our times, that leans

toward a certain scepticism as to the validity of speculative

thought, and toward a certain preference for voluntaristic

forms of the spirit, or for existentialist decadentism, which

has almost become a manner in certain student circles.

These are modes often derived from influences outside

18



the university, at times from political events or from the

literary or mundane ways that do not spring from the gen-

uine requirements of the higher school.

We know, and are happy to repeat, your explanation
of the intellectualistic direction that characterizes you:

that your intellectualism does not mean a valuable and ab-

struse cerebralism that demands the creation of closed and

utopian clubs, but simply a seriousness of study and of

thought to which every true student may aspire.

Rather such a direction is inherent in the intrinsic

nature of the university that springs from the activity of

intelligence and faith in its conquering capacity, as well as

from the basic canon of Catholic spirituality, that evangeli-

cally places the light of the Word at the summit of all things.

Such a direction not only represents the mental

style of the university student, but the ascetic effort to

which he is devoted by vocation and from which he must

draw his own ability, which is that of knowing how to

study, that of possessing the specific virtues of intellectual

life.

Such a direction does not prevent the theoretical

principles of knowledge, the truths linked with life, from

becoming in the student very vivid inner experiences;

Furthermore they infuse in him strong and sound senti-

ments ready to flower in the exercise of charity and prayer,

as well as feelings that are at times tempestuous and sub-

lime, that translate themselves into moral and sentimental

imperatives such as to exalt in him generosity in heroic ac-

tions and the lyrical emotion of artistic expression. Lastly

such a direction presents the problem of culture in its

broadest sense for the Catholic university student’s con-

sideration.

An Incomparable Experience

The final result of the intellectual training sought by

the FUCI is of greatest importance. It is not that the FUCI

is the only organization studying this problem; nor may
it be said that it is its duty to solve it. However it is up

to the FUCI to be aware of it, to know its multiform

19



aspects, to aid its possible solutions. It is FUCI’s respon-

sibility to take full advantage, we were saying, of the best

qualified instrument of organized culture, scholastically

speaking, that is to say, of the university, the school best

equipped to train men for the professions.

Likewise, we were saying, it is the duty of FUCI to

educate its members in the upright and profitable use of

thought; and it shall also be its mission to initiate those

who seek it into the first expressions of their culture,

quite an important function this, that would deserve the

more to be favored if it were less so by the present condi-

tions of university training.

You know these things very well; to us remains only

to encourage you to give to good culture, either humanistic

or scientific, the best development possible. We would
rather recommend to you to take Catholic culture, to heart

as such. You can, above all, explore its treasures; one of

the deplorable gaps of contemporary culture is ignorance

of religious truths, particularly in their authentic expres-

sions, in the sources, in the traditional heritage of Catholic

thought, in the expressions of the ecclesiastical teaching

authority.

Such a gap can be filled by the study of religion, made

into a valuable synthesizing element of university studies.

You can first discover and afterwards reveal the fecundity

of Catholic thought, beginning with the elementary obser-

vation that the dogmatic enunciation of its basic doctrines,

far from halting the dynamic and original development of

culture, stirs it and favors it, which is the case of truth

armed with security and oriented to life.

You can precisely show how Catholic culture is by its

nature directed toward organic manifestations in all of the

human sphere: it is not abstract speculation, superfluous

and egotistical, but a doctrine that requires, on the one

hand, coordination with the moral life of those who possess

it and, on the other hand, that requires social dissemination,

overcoming the instinctive boundary of individualism, of

economic utility, of timidity, of the inability to express

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oneself to make of itself a gift to the brothers and light

to society.

Mission of Catholic Culture

Today, more than ever before, Catholic culture needs

students and teachers, scholars and writers, artists and

apostles; and the FUCI must consider itself as being called

to give its willing cooperation in this area.

After all, you yourselves, dear professors and students,

are just returning from your Padua congress, and can

confirm our observations since the subject of the congress

itself was that of “Culture and European Unity,” justly

defined as one of the most lively topics at the present time.

The very selection of the topic indicates how your con-

cern for culture does not distract you from the historic or

social reality in which you are called to live, but rather

places you as students and as Catholics in the heart of con-

temporary life and requires you to view the panorama

not as inert or important spectators, but as competent

judges and as participants in the world scene, called to

exercise with some responsibility the function that is prop-

erly yours as persons trained in a living thought and ready

to bear witness and to function efficiently.

We are in fact convinced that the great question of
European unity is now a duty to be solved in a positive

manner—in measure and form that it is not for us to
suggest—by the national societies that make up our con-
tinent; likewise we believe that it is the duty of every citi-

zen to give in that respect the support of his judgment and

of his work, insofar as possible.

Foundations for European Unity

We are likewise convinced that the solution of the
question does require a series of unifying provisions at

different levels: economic, technical, military, and political,

but also claims the formation of a unitary mentality, the

spreading of a common culture; without this, European
unity shall not truly be achieved; and when achieved by

determined aims, it shall be a sum-total of components

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foreign to each other, if not reciprocally opposed; thus an

incomplete and fragile phenomenon, if not insincere and

insidious.

You have put in evidence this basic aspect of European

unification, the need, therefore, for the effective and posi-

tive process of such unification to be nourished by a general

culture in common and to be directed toward it.

We have furthermore the conviction that the Catholic
faith can be a factor of incomparable value for instilling

spiritual vitality in the basic united culture that should

constitute the dynamic of a socially and politically unified

Europe.

Unfortunately, Catholicism extends over only a part

of Europe and today Christianity does not reach all. But

it is certain, however, that Europe draws from the tradi-

tional heritage of the religion of Christ the superiority of

its judicial system, the nobility of the great ideas of its

humanism and the richness of the vivifying principles of

its civilization.

Were Europe to repudiate this, its basic ideological

patrimony, it would cease to be itself. Still true is the ap-

parently paradoxical word of the British historian Belloc

that establishes an equation between the Catholic faith and

Europe. Rosmini in his time had already said something

similar. Yours will surely be a positive contribution if you

know how to illustrate such a word in the activities of

culture and of international contacts, always with due con-

sideration for those who do not have the fortune to share

your religious faith, and wisely welcoming the loyal and

positive collaboration of others.

United and Coherent in Trust for Action .

Thus you have learned from the Congress that you

now wish to conclude with this audience, what importance

and what present value your university movement holds

and how, by giving consideration to great prospects and

serious matters, beyond its practical effectiveness, the

movement faithfully interprets the spirit of youth, the uni-

versity spirit and the Catholic spirit.

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Proceed with confidence. Remain united and be al-

ways in accord with your principles and your traditions.

Being resolved to make of your movement a lofty, exacting

school, determined in thought, prayer and life, you thus

oblige yourselves to turn your attention to select groups

of intelligent and willing students, who want to overcome

the boundaries of mediocrity, of ease, of opportunism, of

practical contingencies.

Perhaps you will thus suffer the consequences of qual-

itative selection; nevertheless, try to concern yourselves as

best you can with all of your colleagues of study; do not

remain closed within yourselves and secluded from the cul-

tural and social field in which your life takes place; but be

understanding, welcoming, desirous of giving to your move-

ment also the approval and joy of number, the ability of

drawing closer other social categories, particularly workers

and professionals, and to establish relations with Catholic

students of other countries, as Pax Romana does.

We repeat: proceed with confidence. Do not think
that the objective requirements of truth and guardianship

with which the Church guides its religious truth, should

hamper the freedom of your studies and of your intellectual

profession.

Preserve “the love of loyalty” to the Church which

has been the glorious prerogative of the FUCI from its

inception; preserve as a patrimony which is not heavy to

carry but which is a reserve of energy, the example of the

best who gave to FUCI a lively, modern and Christian coun-

tenance, such as Msgr. Giandomenico Pini, Pier Giorgio

Frassati, Igino Righetti, Renzo De Sanctis, Sergio Paronetto,

Teresio Olivelli, Carlo Bianchi, Itala Mela, Msgr. Luigi

Pelloux, Luigi Scremin, to mention only some of those who

have preceded us in the next life.

Be assured that your former counselor follows you

with affection, with good wishes, with trust, and with

prayer and, in giving to you now his Apostolic Blessing as a

pledge of the divine one, still expects much, much more from

you.

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