Dear brothers and sisters,

I greet the Grand Chancellor Cardinal Reina, whom I thank for his words, the Rector Magnificus Monsignor Amarante, the members of the Higher Coordination Council, the lecturers, the students, auxiliary staff, and the civil and religious authorities present.

I am pleased to be here among you, at the Pontifical Lateran University, for the inauguration of the 253rd academic year of its founding. It is a special occasion, in which, while we look with gratitude at the long history that precedes us, we also look forward to the mission that awaits us, the paths to be explored, the service to be offered to the Church in today's reality and in the face of future challenges. A grateful look at the past, therefore, but also eyes and hearts focused on the future, because there is a need for the valuable service rendered by the university.

Indeed, every university is a place of study, research, formation, relationships and connections with the reality of which it is a part. In particular, the ecclesiastical and pontifical universities, founded and approved by the Apostolic See, are communties in which the “necessary cultural mediation of the faith, while articulated in a reflection open to dialogue with other fields of knowledge, finds its primary and perennial source in Jesus Christ”. [1]

1. A long history between the Bishops of Rome and the Pontifical Lateran University

Among academic institutions, the Lateran University has an entirely special bond with the Successor of Peter, and this has been a constitutive feature of its identity and mission since its origins, when in 1773 Clement XIV entrusted the school of theology of the Roman College to the secular clergy, requesting that the institution depend on the Pope for the formation of its priests. From that moment on, all subsequent Popes have maintained and strengthened a privileged relationship with what would become the current Lateran University. Among them were Blessed Pius IX, who established the structure, still in force today, of the four faculties: Theology, Philosophy, Canon Law, and Civil Law, with the power to confer academic degrees in Utroque Iure; Leo XIII, who founded the Institute of Higher Literature; Pius XII, who established the Pontifical Pastoral Institute at the University; Saint John XXIII, who conferred the title of University on the institution; and Saint Paul VI, who, already a professor in these halls, visited the University shortly after his election and reaffirmed the close bond between it and the Roman Curia.

This special relationship was emphasized by Saint John Paul II, who said: “You constitute, in a special way, the Pope’s University: undoubtedly an honorific title, but for that very reason onerous”. With equally affectionate words, this bond was reaffirmed by Pope Benedict and Pope Francis; at the behest of the latter, two cycles of studies were established: in Peace Sciences and in Ecology and Environment.

2. My hope for the Pontifical Lateran University

In reiterating and confirming all that has been established and granted by my venerable Predecessors, I wish to point out the particular mission of the Pontifical Lateran University in the present circumstances.

Unlike other distinguished academic institutions, including those in Rome, this University does not have a founder's charism to preserve, deepen and develop, but its particular orientation is the teaching of the Pope. By its nature and mission, therefore, it constitutes a privileged centre 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.

At the same time, academic reflection, inspired by the Petrine charism, opens itself to interdisciplinary, international and intercultural perspectives. This mission finds its differentiated application in the four Faculties and two Institutes present on this campus, and in the three Institutes ad instar facultatis, with external locations: the Pontifical Patristic Institute Augustinianum, of the Augustinians; the Pontifical Alfonsian Academy for the study of Moral Theology, run by the Redemptorists; and the Pontifical Claretianum Institute of Theology of Consecrated Life, run by the Claretians.

To these must be added the 28 Institutes associated in various ways on three continents – Europe, Asia and America – both with the Faculty of Theology and with the Institutum Utriusque Iuris: a broad and differentiated reality, an expression of the richness of cultures and experiences and, at the same time, of the search for unity and fidelity to Petrine teaching.

Dear friends, today we have 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. In particular, the Faculty of Theology is called to reflect on the depository of faith and to bring out its beauty and credibility in different contemporary contexts, so that it may appear as a fully human proposal, capable of transforming the lives of individuals and of society, of prompting prophetic changes with regard to the struggles and poverty of our time and encouraging the search for God. This mission requires that the Christian faith be communicated and transmitted in the various environments of life and ecclesial action, and for this reason I consider the service provided by the Pastoral Institute to be of vital importance.

In the Lateran University, the study of philosophy (cf. Veritatis gaudium, Art. 81 § 1) must be directed towards the search for truth through the resources of human reason, open to dialogue with cultures and above all with Christian Revelation, for an integral development of the human person in all its dimensions. It is an important commitment, even in the face of the sometimes defeatist attitude that characterizes contemporary thought, as well as in relation to the emerging forms of rationality linked to transhumanism and posthumanism. 

The Faculties of Law, Canon Law and Civil Law, which have distinguished our University for centuries, are called to study and teach Law through the broadest possible comparison between the legal systems of civil law and that of the Catholic Church. In particular, I encourage you to consider and study in depth the administrative processes, which are an urgent challenge for the Church.

Finally, the study programmes in Peace Studies and Ecology and Environment deserve a special mention, as they will take on a more defined institutional form over the years. The issues they address are an essential part of the recent Magisterium of the Church, which, established as a sign of the covenant between God and humanity, is called upon to form peacemakers and agents of justice who build and bear witness to the Kingdom of God. Peace is certainly a gift from God, but at the same time it requires women and men capable of building it every day and supporting processes towards an integral ecology at the national and international levels. I therefore ask my University to continue to develop and strengthen these two study programmes at the inter- and trans-disciplinary levels and, if necessary, to integrate them with other courses.

3. The formation of people at the heart of the mission of the Pontifical Lateran University

All this relates to the educational mission of the University in general, but I would also like to imagine with you the Lateran University as a space which – as I said at the beginning – has its eyes and heart focused towards the future, and engages with contemporary challenges through some particular dimensions which I will briefly highlight.

The first is this: reciprocity and fraternity must be at the heart of education. Today, unfortunately, the word “person” is often used as a synonym for “individual”, and the appeal of individualism as the key to a successful life has disturbing implications in every area: people focus on self-promotion, the primacy of the self is fuelled and cooperation is difficult, there is a growth in prejudices and walls against others, especially those who are different, the service of responsibility is exchanged for solitary leadership and, in the end, misunderstandings and conflicts multiply. Academic training helps us to move away from self-referentiality and promotes a culture of reciprocity, otherness and dialogue. Against what the Encyclical Fratelli tutti defines as the “virus” of “radical individualism” (no. 105), I ask you to cultivate reciprocity through relationships based on gratuitousness and experiences that foster fraternity and dialogue between different cultures. The Pontifical Lateran University, enriched by the presence of students, teachers and staff from five continents, represents a microcosm of the universal Church: be, therefore, a prophetic sign of communion and fraternity.

The second dimension I would like to mention is scientific rigour, which must be promoted, defended and developed. Academic service is often not given the appreciation it deserves, partly because of deep-rooted prejudices that unfortunately also exist within the ecclesial community. Sometimes there is a perception that research and study are not useful for real life, that what matters in the Church is pastoral practice rather than theological, biblical or legal preparation. The risk is that of slipping into the temptation to simplify complex issues in order to avoid the effort of thinking, with the danger that, even in pastoral action and its language, we may fall into banality, approximation or rigidity.

Scientific research and the effort of research are necessary. We need lay people and priests who are prepared and competent. Therefore, I urge you not to let your guard down on scientific rigour, pursuing a passionate search for truth and a close dialogue with other sciences, with reality, with the problems and struggles of society.

This requires that the University have well-trained teachers who are in a position – pastorally, legally and economically – to devote themselves to academic life and research; that students be motivated and enthusiastic, willing to study rigorously. It requires that the University engage in dialogue with other centres of study and teaching, so that new paths can be explored from this inter- and trans-disciplinary perspective.

The third dimension that I briefly mention is that of the common good. The goal of the educational and academic process, in fact, must be to form people who, in the logic of gratuitousness and in their passion for truth and justice, can be builders of a new world, one of solidarity and fraternity. The University can and must spread this culture, becoming a sign and expression of this new world and of the search for the common good. 

Conclusion

Dear friends, a distinguished theologian of this University, Professor Marcello Bordoni, in one of his reflections on the relationship between Christology and inculturation, states that it is necessary to take on the task of thinking about faith and “dialogue with the world, with its changing history, which often challenges the faith of Christians in the face of new problems and new situations in life”, and  “constitutes the training ground for this commitment, which is the ‘effort of the concept’” (M. BORDONI, Theological Reflection on the Truth of Christian Revelation, in Path 2002/2, 263).

I hope you will to continue to explore the mystery of the Christian faith with this passion and to always practise on the training ground of dialogue with the world, with society, with today's questions and challenges. The Lateran University occupies a special place in the Pope's heart, and the Pope encourages you to dream big, to imagine possible spaces for the Christianity of the future, to work with joy so that everyone may discover Christ and, in Him, find the fullness to which they aspire.

Thank you! And I wish you a happy academic year!

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[1]  Letter of the Holy Father Francis to bishops in support of the Pontifical Lateran University, 13 December 2024).

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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 14 November 2025