Pope Leo: Theology must explore all aspects of human science

By Devin Watkins

Pope Leo XIV met on Wednesday with members of the International Theological Commission, as they held their plenary assembly in Rome.

In his address, the Pope thanked them for their service to the Church as part of the Commission, which Pope St. Paul VI created in 1969 to guide the theological renewal of the Church after the Second Vatican Council.

He expressed appreciation for their recent document examing the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, calling it an “authoritative text” that prepares the way for his Apostolic Journey to Türkiye, where he will visit the site of the Council.

Pope Leo encouraged the theologians to continue in their mission to discern the “new things” that mark the path of the human family and the Church.

“These are realities which urgently challenge us as the people of God, so that we may proclaim with creative fidelity the Good News given to the world ‘once for all’ by God our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said.

The International Theological Commission has the task of offering insights, hermeneutical approaches to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and all the Bishops, a mission he said helps build up the Body of Christ.

The Pope then urged theologians to employ the “indispensable rigor of theological method” and three additional aspects of theological reflection.

He invited them to reflect always on the “catholicity of our faith,” so as to be enriched by the many cultural experiences of local Churches around the world.

The Pope also underlined the importance of working together across theological disciplines, which helps each effectively and authentically express theological concepts with an eye to the evangelization of people of all cultures.

He then pointed to the examples and reflections of the great Doctors of the Church, including St. Augustine, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Therese of Lisieux, and St. John Henry Newman.

“In them,” he said, “theological study was always connected with prayer and spiritual experience, indispensable conditions for cultivating an understanding of Revelation, which cannot be reduced to a commentary on formulas of faith.”

Only a life conformed to the Gospel can make our witness to Christ and the mission of the Church credibile to those to whom we are sent, he said.

“As scientia fidei (‘science of faith’), theology has above all the task of contemplating, and then of reflecting on and spreading the perennial and transformative light of Christ in the changing course of our history.”

Pope Leo XIV recalled the late Pope Benedict XVI’s concern about the “excessive sectorization of knowledge” and the closure of human sciences to metaphysics.

This division of knowledge, said the Pope, impedes both science itself and even the development of peoples.

“Just as there is no faculty that faith does not enlighten, so there is no science that theology may ignore,” concluded Pope Leo. “Through a well-rounded study, you are therefore called to offer your precious contribution to the discernment and resolution of the challenges that confront both the Church and humanity as a whole.”