I commend the promoters of this new institution for their courageous

confidence in good education as a stepping-stone for personal development

and for peace and progress in the region. In this context the University of

Madaba will surely keep in mind three important objectives. By developing

the talents and noble attitudes of successive generations of students, it will

prepare them to serve the wider community and raise its living standards. By

transmitting knowledge and instilling in students a love of truth, it will

greatly enhance their adherence to sound values and their personal freedom.

Finally, this same intellectual formation will sharpen their critical skills,

dispel ignorance and prejudice, and assist in breaking the spell cast by ideo-

logies old and new. The result of this process will be a university that is not

only a platform for consolidating adherence to truth and to the values of a

given culture, but a place of understanding and dialogue. While assimilating

their own heritage, young Jordanians and other students from the region will

be led to a deeper knowledge of human cultural achievements, will be enri-

ched by other viewpoints, and formed in comprehension, tolerance and peace.

This "broader" education is what one expects from institutions of higher

learning and from their cultural milieu, be it secular or religious. In fact,

belief in God does not suppress the search for truth; on the contrary it

encourages it. Saint Paul exhorted the early Christians to open their minds

to "all that is true, all that is noble, all that is good and pure, all that we love

and honor, all that is considered excellent or worthy of praise".1 Religion, of

course, like science and technology, philosophy and all expressions of our

search for truth, can be corrupted. Religion is disfigured when pressed into

the service of ignorance or prejudice, contempt, violence and abuse. In this

case we see not only a perversion of religion but also a corruption of human

freedom, a narrowing and blindness of the mind. Clearly, such an outcome is

not inevitable. Indeed, when we promote education, we proclaim our confi-

dence in the gift of freedom. The human heart can be hardened by the limits

of its environment, by interests and passions. But every person is also called

to wisdom and integrity, to the basic and all-important choice of good over

evil, truth over dishonesty, and can be assisted in this task.

The call to moral integrity is perceived by the genuinely religious person,

since the God of truth and love and beauty cannot be served in any other way.

Mature belief in God serves greatly to guide the acquisition and proper appli-

cation of knowledge. Science and technology offer extraordinary benefits to

society and have greatly improved the quality of life of many human beings.

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1 Phil 4:8.