Pope in Uruguay: ‘Other people are a blessing, not a threat’

Pope Leo XIV visits the Catholic University of Uruguay in Montevideo, and urges everyone involved in education to reject the temptation to belittle … On the second day of his Apostolic Journey to Uruguay, Pope Leo XIV visited with the education community at the Catholic University of Uruguay. In his address, the Pope recalled that Pope St. John Paul II visited the institution over 38 years ago, not long after it was founded in its current form. Pope Leo thanked everyone involved in Catholic education for their perseverance in proclaiming the Gospel, which “makes all things new.” “The goal of the pastoral mission in education is for students, teachers and school administrators to hear, see, taste, touch, and smell the Good News, allowing it to enlighten the senses,” he said, so that all people may fully recognize their “inalienable dignity as human persons.” The Pope said society must overcome the dualistic tendency to reduce the body to an object that can be disposed of arbitrarily, since the human being “though made of body and soul, is one.” He then explored how the five senses can help us rediscover the beauty of the Gospel and the grandeur of our humanity.

Our sight, he said, opens our souls to contemplation, which means looking attentively, almost in wonder, at both material and spiritual