Vatican sees value in interdisciplinary cooperation at church schools

Published: 2006-11-20

ROME (CNS) -- A Catholic university should be a place where experts from a variety of disciplines work together to benefit individuals and humanity as a whole, said a top Vatican official. With its theological and philosophical foundation applied to questions of economics, law, human rights, justice and peace, Catholic social teaching is a field made for interdisciplinary cooperation, said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state. In a written message to a Nov. 17-18 meeting of representatives from 150 Catholic universities from around the world, Cardinal Bertone said Pope Benedict XVI applauded their efforts to ensure that scholarly specialization did not lead to a "fragmentation of knowledge" in which experts in different fields each claimed to know the whole truth. When a scholar focuses on "a tiny sector of pertinence" and lacks knowledge in other fields and a practical experience of dialogue with other scholars, he or she can lose perspective, Cardinal Bertone said.

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