ROME (Zenit): What sets apart Catholic universities from their counterparts is that they carry out their work in the light of faith, Cardinal Karl Lehmann said.
The president of the German episcopal conference made the point in the opening lecture of a symposium on the “University and Church in Europe”, held in Rome from July 17-20.
“Catholic universities are like others, being responsible for study and research, but they do so in the light of the Christian proclamation,” he said.
The symposium gathered about 1500 participants, including students, professors, chaplains, rectors, and bishops of university cities in Europe.
“The credibility of the testimony and the ability to dialogue are the most persuasive in the university realm,” the cardinal from Mainz said.
In the university world, “theology has the task of ideological criticism”, he observed. “It must show in a clear and limpid way what it can do to overcome the daily problems of individuals and society.”
Yet, theology must keep alive in the university “the question on our origin and destiny, on the meaning of the world and of history”, Cardinal Lehmann said.
