Pope Leo XIV continued his catechesis series on Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Council, as he held his Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter’s Square.
The Pope reflected on the relationship between culture and the Christian faith, as presented in the Apostolic Constitution’s second chapter.
In every age, he said, the Catholic Church has sought to accompany the proclamation of the Gospel with the establishment of educational institutions, in an effort to advance cultural, human, and spiritual formation.
He pointed to the impact that medieval universities had on the formation of Western civilization, recognizing that critical thought prompts believers to provide “a reason for their faith.”
At the same time, every culture expresses its own drive for people to open their minds to humanity’s inherent spiritual dimension.
By expressing humanity’s search for meaning, every culture thus prepares people to receive the Gospel of Christ, said the Pope.
“The relationship between faith and culture finds its primary foundation in the Incarnation,” he said. “As the divine Word became flesh and came to dwell in our midst, so too is faith an incarnate reality, interwoven with the culture in which it is immersed.”
Faith, said Pope Leo, is embodied in every culture but is not identified with any specific expression.
“Faith dwells within them,” he said, “shaping them from within according to the ‘form’ of Jesus Christ; that is, through charity, service and the filial recognition of God’s fatherhood.”
In the same way, the Church draws what is good, beautiful, and true from all cultures in order to transmit the faith and the Gospel message.
Pope Leo recalled the Church’s desire to promote culture as a good in itself and as a service to humanity, especially in the form of universal education.
Gaudium et Spes, he said, upholds the need for teaching to embrace “unity of knowledge.”
Christians, he added, have received from Revelation the answers to the great questions of existence; however, we are not exempt from engaging in patient intellectual and cultural formation.
“On the contrary,” he said, “Christians’ human and scientific knowledge must go hand in hand with the substance of their faith, which must be continually deepened with age and in accordance with their level of study.”
In conclusion, Pope Leo XIV said the Church must cultivate a fruitful integration of all forms of knowledge, expressed in a way of living the faith “marked by a positive outlook on the world and history.”
“Faith, therefore, enriches and brings to fulfillment every culture it encounters, and is itself called to become a culture that is shaped by Christ.”
Special guests
Among those present for Wednesday’s General Audience was a group from Pope Leo’s home state of Illinois, USA.
Coming from the town of New Lenox, about fifty parishioners from St. Jude Catholic Church—including John Joseph Prevost, the Pope’s brother—led by their pastor, the Augustinian Father Ray Flores, concluded their pilgrimage in St. Peter’s Square this morning, October 28.
The journey, which followed in the footsteps of Saint Augustine, took them to the Italian towns of Pavia, Milan, Turin, Tolentino, Cascia, Florence, and San Gimignano.
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