BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Pope's videomessage on 400th anniversary
of Asia's oldest university

January 29, 2011




The Holy Father taped a videomessage in English for the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila, Philippines, which began its 4th centenary jubilee year yesterday on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, in the presence of Benedict XVI's personal envoy to the occasion, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education.

[UST was founded by the Dominicans in 1611 as a pontifical and royal university, and is Asia's oldest university, founded 25 years before Harvard University, the oldest university in the New World. It has a current enrollment of about 42,000, apparently the world's largest single-campus Catholic university..]

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Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, Dear Friends,

I am pleased to send my warm greetings to the students, staff and alumni of the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas as you celebrate the four-hundredth anniversary of its foundation.

This is a signifìcant event in the life of the Church and, although I cannot be with you physically, I am happy to speak to you personally in this way, to unite myself to you spiritually, and to offer all of you my affectionate congratulations on this happy occasion.

It is with thanksgiving that I recall the many clergy, religious and laity who, at Santo Tomas, have handed down to generations of Filipinos the faith, knowledge and wisdom to be found in the religious and secular sciences.

In particular, I salute the memory of your founder, Bishop Miguel de Benavides, and the great commitment of the Dominicans who have guided the institution through the many challenges of the past four centuries.

As you know, the University of Santo Tomas is the oldest institution of Catholic higher education in the Far East and it continues to play a very important role in the Church throughout the region.

I am confident that, keeping in mind the faith and reason that are always part of a truly integrated approach to education, your University will continue to contribute to the intellectual, spiritual and cultural enrichment of the Philippines and beyond.

I also pray that you will always seek a knowledge of matters human and divine in the light of that ultimate clarity found in the person of Jesus Christ (cf. Jn 8: 12).

Invoking the wise intercession of your heavenly patron, Saint Thomas Aquinas, I willingly impart to you my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of grace and peace.

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[On a personal note, while I am very proud as a Filipina of UST's glorious history, I did not attend it, going instead to the University of the Philippines, the country's first (and for a long time the only) state university. It was founded by the U.S. government in 1908, eariy in their colonial administration of the Philippines, and it quickly developed into one of the most outstanding universities in the Third World. Seven of my paternal aunts and uncles had attended UP, and there was never any question for me of going to another university. At the time I attended UP, however, the university's Student Catholic Action was the biggest student organization on campus (under an Irish Jesuit chaplain who was the most orthodox of Catholic priests and the most literate of preachers), and UPSCA provided us with the best and most productive extra-curricular activities - so I had the best of both worlds: an excellent education that was secular and open, and a nurturing Catholic environment on campus.