The Pope warned this Monday in an improvised way that “ideologies always kill” during his speech to the teachers and students of the Vatican School of Paleography, Diplomacy and Archival Studies and the Vatican School of Library Science.
“These Schools have, since their origins, a decisive characteristic: that of having an eminently practical approach and a concrete approach to problems and studies, according to a line that I have repeatedly indicated, because confrontation with the reality of things is worth more than ideology,” he noted during the reception for the 140th anniversary of the founding of these two Vatican institutions.
On the other hand, he has warned of the “toxic” and “violent” content that lurks on social networks by framing this reality as one of the current challenges that must be faced in society.
In his speech, Francis called to “include and never exclude anyone from the sources of knowledge and, at the same time, defend everyone from the toxic, unhealthy and violent that can lurk in the world of social and technological knowledge.” .
Among the “decisive cultural challenges” that must be faced as a society, the Pope has also mentioned the “great times linked to globalization, the risk of flattening and devaluation of knowledge and the increasingly complex relationship with technologies.”
The Pontiff has assured that being an archivist and librarian is taught and learned in contact, in addition to studies, “with the living experience of those who practice this profession in the Library and Archives.”
The Pope has also claimed the secular heritage of the Archives and the Library, which have the task and responsibility of “conserving and transmitting to present and future generations.” In this way, he asked those present to have a “great openness to confrontation and dialogue”, as well as the willingness to welcome, above all, “marginality and material, cultural and spiritual poverty.” Finally, he has claimed to avoid “self-referentiality.”
