Acta Benedicti Pp. XVI 933

demnation, but also for the efforts of all those committed to ongoing dialogue

and reflection on the complementarity of faith and reason in the service of an

integral understanding of man and his place in the universe. I am particu-

larly grateful to the staff of the Observatory, and to the friends and bene-

factors of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, for their efforts to promote

research, educational opportunities and dialogue between the Church and the

world of science.

The International Year of Astronomy is meant not least to recapture for

people throughout our world the extraordinary wonder and amazement

which characterized the great age of discovery in the sixteenth century. I

think, for example, of the exultation felt by the scientists of the Roman

College who just a few steps from here carried out the observations and

calculations which led to the worldwide adoption of the Gregorian calendar.

Our own age, poised at the edge of perhaps even greater and more far-ranging

scientific discoveries, would benefit from that same sense of awe and the

desire to attain a truly humanistic synthesis of knowledge which inspired

the fathers of modern science. Who can deny that responsibility for the

future of humanity, and indeed respect for nature and the world around

us, demand - today as much as ever - the careful observation, critical

judgement, patience and discipline which are essential to the modern scien-

tific method? At the same time, the great scientists of the age of discovery

remind us also that true knowledge is always directed to wisdom, and, rather

than restricting the eyes of the mind, it invites us to lift our gaze to the higher

realm of the spirit.

Knowledge, in a word, must be understood and pursued in all its liberat-

ing breadth. It can certainly be reduced to calculation and experiment, yet if

it aspires to be wisdom, capable of directing man in the light of his first

beginnings and his final ends, it must be committed to the pursuit of that

ultimate truth which, while ever beyond our complete grasp, is nonetheless

the key to our authentic happiness and freedom,1 the measure of our true

humanity, and the criterion for a just relationship with the physical world

and with our brothers and sisters in the great human family.

Dear friends, modern cosmology has shown us that neither we, nor the

earth we stand on, is the centre of our universe, composed of billions of

galaxies, each of them with myriads of stars and planets. Yet, as we seek

1 Cfr. Jn 8:32.