Pope Leo XIV opens the 253rd academic year at Pontifical Lateran University, urging it to pursue truth and articulate faith for today’s challenges.
Newsroom (13/11/2025 Gaudium Press) Pope Leo XIV, in a stirring address at the Pontifical Lateran University on Friday, called on the institution to “pursue the truth” and imagine “possible spaces for the Christianity of tomorrow.” The occasion marked the inauguration of the university’s 253rd academic year, a milestone for an institution long revered as “the Pope’s university” since Pope John Paul II’s historic 1980 address.
The Pope’s visit to the university’s Aula Magna was met with a warm reception from Grand Chancellor Cardinal Baldassare Reina, Rector Magnificus Archbishop Alfonso V. Amarante, professors, students, and civil and religious authorities. The Dies Academicus, a reflective moment to launch the academic year, underscored the university’s unique mission within the Catholic Church.
“This university holds a special place in the heart of the Pope,” Leo XIV told the assembly, encouraging its community to “dream big” and work joyfully to help others “discover Christ and find in Him the fullness to which they aspire.” Unlike other academic institutions, he noted, the Lateran University is not bound by a founding charism but is uniquely oriented toward the Pope’s magisterium—the teaching authority of the papacy.
This mission, the Pope explained, positions the Lateran as a “privileged center” for developing, receiving, and contextualizing the universal Church’s teachings. Its work, he added, serves as a resource even for the Roman Curia in its daily operations. With 28 affiliated institutes spanning Europe, Asia, and the Americas, the university embodies a “vast and diverse reality,” reflecting both cultural richness and fidelity to Petrine teaching.
A Call to Address Contemporary Challenges
Pope Leo emphasized the urgent need to articulate faith in today’s cultural landscape, warning of a “growing cultural void” that threatens spiritual and societal vitality. He urged the Faculty of Theology to present faith as “deeply human,” capable of transforming individuals and societies, and to highlight its beauty and credibility in modern contexts.
The Pope also addressed the university’s diverse academic disciplines. He called on the Faculty of Philosophy to pursue truth through human reason, fostering dialogue with cultures and Christian Revelation. The faculties of canon and civil law, which have defined the Lateran for centuries, were encouraged to explore the interplay between civil legal systems and Church law.
Special attention was given to the university’s programs in peace studies, ecology, and the environment, which Pope Leo said would gain a more structured institutional form in the coming years. “Peace is certainly a gift from God,” he remarked, “but it also demands women and men capable of building it daily, and of supporting national and international processes leading to an integral ecology.”
Concluding his address, the Pope urged the Lateran community to “continue probing the mystery of the Christian faith with passion” and to practice dialogue with the world, addressing today’s questions and challenges with intellectual rigor and spiritual depth.
Navigating Uncharted Territory
Cardinal Reina, in his introductory remarks, highlighted the university’s commitment to interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, despite challenges posed by demographic decline, a vocations crisis, and economic constraints. With 130 teachers, 34 administrative staff, and over a thousand students, the Lateran is actively exploring “uncharted territory” in research, teaching, and course design to align with the Petrine magisterium.
“We are trying to explore new avenues that respond to the needs of the Church and the world,” Reina said, underscoring the university’s efforts to innovate while remaining rooted in its mission.
The Pontifical Lateran University, founded in 1773, has long served as a beacon of Catholic intellectual life. Pope Leo’s visit and his call to action reaffirm its role as a vital institution for shaping the Church’s engagement with contemporary society, fostering dialogue, and pursuing truth in an ever-changing world.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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