To the
members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
SPIRITUAL HERITAGE OF HUMANITY
SHOULD ACCOMPANY AND CONTROL
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
3 October 1981
Mr. President,
Members of the Academy,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
1.The programme of
work which your President has presented, and with which I was already
acquainted before this meeting, demonstrates the great vitality of your
Academy, its interest in the most acute problems of modern science and its
interest in the service of humanity. On the occasion of a previous solemn
session I have already had the opportunity to tell you how highly the Church
esteems pure science: it is “a good, worth of being loved, for it is knowledge
and therefore perfection of man in his intelligence. It must be honoured for its own sake, as an integral part of culture”
(address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 10 November 1979).
Before speaking
of the questions which you have already discussed during these days and
those which you now propose to study,
permit me to express my warm thanks to your
illustrious President, Professor Carlos Chagas,
for the congratulations which he kindly expressed in the name of your whole Assembly for my having
regained my physical strength, thanks to the merciful Providence of God and the
skill of the doctors who have cared for me. And I am pleased to avail myself of
the occasion to express my particular gratitude to the Members of the Academy
who from all parts of the world have sent me their good wishes and assured me
of their prayers.
2.During this study week, you are
dealing with the subject of “Cosmology and Fundamental Physics”, with the
participation of scholars from the whole world, from as far away as North and
South America and Europe and China. This subject is linked to themes already
dealt with by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the course of its
prestigious history. Here I wish to speak of the sessions on microseisms,
stellar clusters, cosmic radiation and galactic nuclei, sessions which have
taken place under the presidency of Father Gemelli,
Monsignor Lemaitre and also Father O’Connell, to whom
I address my most fervent good wishes and whom I pray the Lord to assist in his
infirmity.
Cosmogony and cosmology have always
aroused great interest among peoples and religions. The Bible itself speaks to
us of the origin of the universe and its make-up, not in order to provide us
with a scientific treatise, but in order to state the correct relationships of
man with God and with the universe. Sacred Scripture wishes simply to declare
that the world was created by God, and in order to teach this truth it
expresses itself in the terms of the cosmology in use at the time of the
writer. The Sacred Book likewise wishes to tell men that the world was not
created as the seat of the gods, as was taught by other cosmogonies and
cosmologies, but was rather created for the service of man and the glory of
God. Any other teaching about the origin and make-up of the universe is alien
to the intentions of the Bible, which does not wish to teach how heaven was
made but how one goes to heaven.
Any scientific hypothesis on the
origin of the world, such as the hypothesis of a primitive atom from which
derived the whole of the physical universe, leaves open the problem concerning the
universe's beginning. Science cannot of itself solve this question: there is
needed the human knowledge that rises above physics and astrophysics and which
is called metaphysics; there is needed above all the knowledge that comes from
God's Revelation. Thirty years ago, on 22 November 1951, my predecessor Pope
Pius XII, speaking about the problem of the origin of the universe at the Study
Week on the subject of microseisms organized by the Pontifical Academy of
Sciences, expressed himself as follows: "In vain would one expect a reply
from the sciences of nature, which on the contrary frankly declare that they
find themselves faced by an insoluble enigma. It is equally certain that the
human mind versed in philosophical meditation penetrates the problem more
deeply. One cannot deny that a mind which is enlightened and enriched by modern
scientific knowledge and which calmly considers this problem is led to break
the circle of matter which is totally independent and autonomous - as being
either uncreated or having created itself - and to rise to a creating Mind.
With the same clear and critical gaze with which it examines and judges the
facts, it discerns and recognizes there the work of creative Omnipotence, whose
strength raised up by the powerful fiat
uttered milliards of years ago by the creating Mind, has spread through the
universe, calling into existence, in a gesture of generous love, matter teeming
with energy".
"Impact of Molecular Biology on
Society"
3.Members of the Academy, I am very
pleased with the theme that you have chosen for your Plenary Session beginning
on this very day: "The Impact of Molecular Biology on Society". I
realize the advantages that result - and can still result - from the study and
applications of molecular biology, supplemented by other disciplines such as
genetics and its technological application in agriculture and industry, and
also, as is envisaged, for the treatment of various illnesses, some of a
hereditary character.
I have firm confidence in the world
scientific community, and in a very special way in the Pontifical Academy of
Sciences, and I am certain that thanks to them biological progress and
research, as also all other forms of scientific research and its technological
application, will be carried out in full respect for the norms of morality,
safeguarding human dignity, freedom and equality. It is necessary that science
should always be accompanied and controlled by the wisdom that belongs to the
permanent spiritual heritage of humanity and that takes its inspiration from
the design of God implanted in creation before being subsequently proclaimed by
his Word.
Reflection that is inspired by
science and by the wisdom of the world scientific community must enlighten
humanity regarding the consequences - good and bad - of scientific research,
and especially of that research which concerns man, so that, on the one hand,
there will be no fixation on anticultural positions
that retard the progress of humanity, and that on the other hand there will be
no attack on man's most precious possession: the dignity of his person,
destined to true progress in the unity of his physical, intellectual and
spiritual well-being.
The question of parasitic diseases
4.There is another subject which,
during these days, has occupied the thoughts of some of you, eminent scholars
from different parts of the world, who have been brought together by the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences: the question of parasitic diseases, diseases
which strike the poorest countries of the world and are a serious obstacle to
the development of man in the harmonious framework of his physical, economic
and spiritual well-being. The efforts to eliminate, as far as possible, the
serious harm caused by parasitic diseases to a considerable part of humanity
are inseparable from the efforts which should be made for the socioeconomic
development of those same peoples. Human beings normally need a basic minimum
of health and material goods in order to be able to live in a manner worthy of
their human and divine vocation. It is for this reason that Jesus turned with
infinite love to the sick and infirm, and that he miraculously cured some of
the diseases about which you have been concerned in these past days. May the
Lord inspire and assist the work of the scientists and doctors who dedicate
their research and profession to the study and treatment of human infirmities,
especially those which are the most grave an humiliating.
5.In addition to the question of
parasitic diseases, the Academy has been studying the question of a scourge of
catastrophic dimensions and gravity that could attack the health of humanity if
a nuclear conflict were to break out. Over and above the death of a
considerable part of the world's population, a nuclear conflict could have
incalculable effects on the health of the present and future generations.
The multi-disciplinary study which
you are preparing to undertake cannot fail to be for the Heads of State a
reminder of their tremendous responsibilities, and arouse in all humanity an
ever more intense desire for concord and peace, a desire which comes from the
most profound depths of the human heart, and also from the message of Christ
who came to bring peace to people of good will.
By virtue of my universal mission, I
wish to make myself once more the spokesman of the human right to justice and
peace, and of the will of God who wishes all people to be saved. And I renew
the appeal that I made at Hiroshima on February 25 of this year: “Let us pledge
ourselves to peace through justice; let us now take a solemn decision, now,
that war will never be tolerated or sought as a means of resolving differences;
let us promise our fellow human beings that we will work untiringly for
disarmament and the banishing of all nuclear weapons; let us replace violence
and hate with confidence and caring".
6.Among the efforts to be made in
order to secure the peace of humanity, there is the effort to ensure for all
peoples the energy needed for their peaceful development. The Academy concerned itself with this
problem during its Study Week last year. I am happy to be able to award today
the Pius XI Gold Medal to a scientist who has contributed in an outstanding
way, by his research in the field of photo-chemistry, to the utilization of
solar energy: Professor Jean-Marie Lehn of the Collège de France and the University of Strasbourg, and I
express to him my most cordial congratulations.
To all of
you, I offer my sincere compliments on the work which you are doing in
scientific research. I pray that Almighty God will bless you, you families,
your loved ones, your collaborators, and the whole of humanity, for whom in
diverse yet converging ways you and I are carrying out the mission which has
been entrusted to us by God.