Pope tells students intellect, faith not mutually exclusive

Published: 2007-11-09

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Being a Catholic and sharpening one's intellect through higher education are not mutually exclusive, Pope Benedict XVI told a group of Catholic students. In fact, it is in the search for greater knowledge and truth that the doors are opened to faith, he said in a Nov. 9 address to representatives of the Italian Catholic University Federation, which this year celebrated the 110th anniversary of its founding. Why is it people maintain "that whoever has faith must renounce an unencumbered search for truth and whoever freely seeks truth must renounce one's faith?" the pope asked. Exactly the opposite is true, he told about 120 students gathered for the private audience in the Vatican. "It is precisely the steady, courageous search for the truth that opens the doors to faith," he said. Many intellectuals, from Socrates to St. Edith Stein, showed that it was their quest for truth that put them on the path toward finding God, said the pope.

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