Pontifical universities in Rome host conference on legacy of St. John Paul II

Vatican City, Nov 27, 2024 / 11:30 am (CNA).

The Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education is sponsoring a four-day event in Rome to honor the spiritual and intellectual legacy of Pope Saint John Paul II while marking the 25th anniversary of his encyclical Fides et Ratio.

Twenty years into his pontificate, John Paul II released Fides et Ratio — ”Faith and Reason” — on the Sept. 14 feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in 1998.

Describing faith and reason as “two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of the truth,” the pope emphasized that the human heart ultimately seeks to know and love God.

Organized by the John Paul II Vatican Foundation, the Church and Hospice of Saint Stanislaus Martyr in Rome, and the Pontifical John Paul II University of Krakow, the “Days of Saint John Paul II at the Pontifical Universities of Rome” event includes a series of seminars to be hosted by three pontifical universities in Rome.

From Nov. 26-29, the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas — also known as the “Angelicum” — alongside the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross and the Pontifical Gregorian University will hold panel discussions in Rome to delve deeper into the teachings of St. John Paul II on a variety of topics.

The talks will include the compatibility of faith and reason; the 1981-1992 pontifical study commission on the Galileo case; and the significance of intergenerational dialogue in the development of culture.

In an interview with EWTN News, Sister Mary Angela Woelkers, who works at the Angelicum, said this year’s inaugural event will be the first of annual conferences hosted by pontifical universities in Rome dedicated to the legacy of the great pope saint.

“We hope to be able to bring to university students here in the city, and also a larger audience, renewed reflection — not only to rediscover the gift of this document and this theme [Fides et Ratio] which was so present throughout the teaching of John Paul the Second — but also to think together with him to address so many challenging situations that we confront in our current moment,” Woelkers told EWTN News.

“John Paul knew that the youth had a powerful potential to not only live the faith but be witnesses of the faith in a generation where there is an eclipse of God,” she added.

Recognizing John Paul II as the “most distinguished alumnus” of the Angelicum, Father Benedict Croell OP, public relations director at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, said he hopes this year’s conference will inspire many young students to follow in the saint’s footsteps by using faith and reason to face the challenges of our times.

“We know that he [John Paul II] walked the same halls that our students walked today, and he studied the same fundamental truths that our students study today,” he told EWTN News.

“It’s incredibly important to not only remember his story and his legacy, but know that he walks with us, and he has so much to say to us today,” he said.

“It’s a great joy to recognize the importance that he still has for the Church [and] for everybody.”

Guest panelists invited to speak at the event include Richard Swinburne, emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford and Father Melchor Sánchez de Toca Alameda, Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education and Vatican official of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.