ABSTRACT
I will examine the treatment of the Catholic university that emerged in the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI in part two of this chapter. However, it is already clear that there was a desire on the part of the Council to champion the cause of education and that this was to include the work of universities. Part of the closing message of the Second Vatican Council (read out on 8th December 1965 by Cardinals Leger of Montreal, Caggiano of Buenos Aires and Gilroy of Sydney) was addressed to men [sic] of thought and science (see Abbott, 1967 p. 731). It greeted seekers after truth and claimed close identification with their tasks: ‘Your road is ours. Your paths are never foreign to ours. We are the friends of your vocation as searchers, companions in your fatigues, admirers of your successes and, if necessary, consolers in your discouragement and your failures.’ It offered to support the responsibility of academics to promote rigorous thinking by urging them to avail themselves of the illumination granted by the lamp of faith.
