Pope Francis encouraged students at the Portuguese Catholic University “to keep seeking and to be ready to take risks,” challenging them to “hear the painful plea” of the poor.
On his second day in Portugal August 3 for the World Youth Day celebrations, the pontiff listened first to the hopes and experiences of Catholic students.
The pope then challenged the crowd to “find the courage to see our world not as in its death throes, but in a process of giving birth, not at the end, but at the beginning of a great new chapter of history”.
“We need the courage to think like this. So, work to bring about a new “choreography”, one that respects the “dance” of life by putting the human person at the center,” the pontiff said.
Pope Francis said young people must take the risk of replacing their “doubts with dreams”, adding, “Do not remain hostage to your fears, but set about working to realize your goals.”
The pontiff underscored that a university would have little use if “it were simply to train the next generation to perpetuate the present global system of elitism and inequality”, which Pope Francis described as the higher education “of a happy few”.
“Unless knowledge is embraced as a responsibility, it bears little fruit,” the pontiff said.
In her welcome message, university rector Isabel Capeloa Gil said the educational institution “stands as a guardian of hope,” which allows students to believe in the capacity of the human family for “transformation”.
She assured the pontiff that “in our work, we combine the search for knowledge in favor of improving the human condition, ethical discernment that guides the possibility of choosing and acting, the cultivation of beauty and aesthetic gesture that is also a search for meaning in the world”.
“The university is therefore a curator of knowledge, a philosopher of action, and a manager of beauty,” she added.
Citing the Laudato Si’ – his encyclical on the protection of the environment, Pope Francis urged students to redefine the meaning of progress and development.
“Please study this carefully: in the name of progress, we have often regressed. Yours can be the generation that takes up this great challenge. You have the most advanced scientific and technological tools, but please, avoid falling into the trap of myopic and partial approaches,” he said.
The pontiff reminded the students that in a Catholic university, “each part is related to the whole, while the whole is to be found in each of its parts”.
