Contributed by Director of Editorial Services Ken Arnold

Kelly Snedden
Director, Communications
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 18, 2008

Newman University President Finds Papal Address to Catholic Educators Balanced, Affirming

Please click here to read the complete text of Pope Benedict XVI’s address.

Wichita, Kan. – Newman University President Noreen M. Carrocci, Ph.D. said she found the message sent by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to U.S. Catholic educators April 17 to be encouraging and affirming.

“He started with the idea that education is integral to the mission of the Church – to proclaim the good news,” said Carrocci. She added that the Holy Father offered, “his profound gratitude to Catholic educators and he seemed to want to provide encouragement to all of us.”

Carrocci was among an invitation-only audience of U.S. Catholic university and college presidents as well as Catholic school superintendents from across the country who heard the Pontiff speak April 17 at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. A complete text version of the address is available by clicking here.

Carrocci said a central theme of the Pope’s address was that Catholic educators must strive for a balance between faith and reason. Speaking directly at one point to Catholic university professors and administrators, Benedict – a former college professor – said, “I wish to reaffirm the great value of academic freedom. You are called to search for the truth wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you.” He added, however, that the search should not be used to, “justify positions that contradict the faith and the teaching of the Church,” which he said is the source of ultimate truth.

Carrocci said Newman University strives to maintain that balance.

“At Newman we have always had a strong commitment to Catholic values, and have worked to ensure that those values and moral standards are integrated into the curriculum and are a part of the overall campus environment,” she said. She added, “The Pope said that, ‘Catholic identity is not dependent upon statistics. Neither can it be equated simply with orthodoxy of course content.’ Rather, he called on us to create learning communities that reverberate with faith, where students discover ‘the joy of entering into Christ’s “being for others.”’ When we strive for our graduates to transform society, we are directly responding to this call,” Carrocci said.

Carrocci said she appreciated the Pontiff’s charge to keep Catholic education available to all who seek it.

“I think he’s urging us to do everything we can to further Catholic education,” Carrocci said. “I had the sense he was calling all of us, not just K-12, but in higher education as well to make a Catholic education accessible to all, particularly the poorest among us.”

Carrocci added that she was moved by the Pope’s closing remarks that Catholic educators, “bear witness to hope . . . by living the truth which you propose to your students.” She also appreciated the Pope’s quotation from St. Augustine that, “‘we who speak and you who listen acknowledge ourselves as fellow disciples of a single teacher,’ and that would be Christ.”

“I think that expresses a profound respect for our students,” Carrocci said, “His message seemed very affirming.”

Pope Benedict’s address was part of a six-day visit to the United States. It was the first visit to America by the Holy Father and the first gathering of Catholic higher education officials to hear the Pontiff at Catholic University since John Paul II visited there in 1979.

The Catholic University of America is the national university of the Catholic Church and the only higher education institution founded by the U.S. bishops. Established in 1887 as a papally chartered graduate and research center, the university began offering undergraduate education in 1904. It now offers 235 degree programs and has an average population of 6,400 students.