Pope Leo XIV visits the Catholic University of Uruguay in Montevideo, and urges everyone involved in education to reject the temptation to belittle others but to listen with respect.
On the second day of his Apostolic Journey to Uruguay, Pope Leo XIV visited with the education community at the Catholic University of Uruguay.
In his address, the Pope recalled that Pope St. John Paul II visited the institution over 38 years ago, not long after it was founded in its current form.
Pope Leo thanked everyone involved in Catholic education for their perseverance in proclaiming the Gospel, which “makes all things new.”
“The goal of the pastoral mission in education is for students, teachers and school administrators to hear, see, taste, touch, and smell the Good News, allowing it to enlighten the senses,” he said, so that all people may fully recognize their “inalienable dignity as human persons.”
The Pope said society must overcome the dualistic tendency to reduce the body to an object that can be disposed of arbitrarily, since the human being “though made of body and soul, is one.”
He then explored how the five senses can help us rediscover the beauty of the Gospel and the grandeur of our humanity.
Our sight, he said, opens our souls to contemplation, which means looking attentively, almost in wonder, at both material and spiritual realities.
“Contemplating creation and encountering God awaken in us an awareness of our place in His plan and of our personal and collective responsibility to preserve the original harmony,” he said.
The sense of touch recalls humanity’s duty to cultivate the earth and bring forth fruit, said the Pope.
However, he lamented that human hands are also capable of producing war, calling it the “most terrible of human works.”
Yet, those who feel the embrace of the merciful Father will inevitably become peacemakers, he added.
Pope Leo then turned to the sense of taste, which he said is not limited to flavors, since taste evokes “the wisdom that comes from experiencing, reflecting on, and savoring.”
He encouraged schools and universities to make “judicious use of technologies and AI, placing the person before the algorithm and harmonizing technical, emotional, social, spiritual, and ecological intelligence.”
With our sense of smell, the Pope evoked St. Augustine’s saying that “a good reputation is a sweet fragrance.”
“Today, however, people’s reputations are under constant attack, to the point that discarding, rejecting, and belittling others have become a foul odor to which our sense of smell has grown accustomed,” he said.
Pope Leo said Catholic schools must resist the dehumanizing process in which computational systems are deemed “intelligent” while the inalienable dignity of the human person is not recognized where productivity is diminished.
Finally, the Pope considered the sense of hearing and the related importance of discernment.
“Those who listen recognize others as a blessing, not as a threat,” he said. “In Sacred Scripture, listening to the Lord is seen as an act of wisdom, prudence and justice.”
Catholic education, concluded Pope Leo XIV, must embody these three virtues and walk with Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Before leaving, the Pope spoke to students gathered in the university’s courtyard, encouraging them to live with enthusiasm and joy.
“I want to share with you a deep desire I carry in my heart,” he said. “I hope you find the same enthusiasm every day that you feel today, and that you can be the voice Uruguay needs to discover just how important faith in God is, how precious human life is, and how much each of your lives matters.”
Credit: Vatican News