Speaking on November 14 at the Pontifical Lateran University, at the opening of its 253rd academic year, Pope Leo XIV called attention to the institution’s special role: “its particular orientation is the teaching of the Pope.”
“By its nature and mission,” the Pontiff said, the university “constitutes a privileged center where the teaching of the universal Church is elaborated, received, developed and contextualized. From this point of view, it is an institution to which even the Roman Curia can refer for its daily work.”
The Pope challenged the students and faculty of the Lateran University to meet “an urgent need to reflect on faith in order to be able to articulate it in relation to current cultural scenarios and challenges, but also to counter the risk of cultural emptiness which, in our era, is becoming increasingly pervasive.”