Pope Leo XIV urges pontifical university students to ‘guard your hearts’

Pope Leo XIV urged students and faculty at Rome’s pontifical universities to “guard your hearts” and warned against reducing intellectual activity to the collection of data during a Mass Thursday marking the opening of the academic year.

Celebrating the Eucharist in St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope emphasized the mission of pontifical universities, the importance of critical thinking in the life of faith, and the need to connect academic study with the experiences of ordinary people, especially the poor.

Reflecting on St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, Leo said that intellectual inquiry is essential to both faith and mission.

The apostle’s words, he explained, are “an appeal to reason, memory, and critical thinking.”

“In every age, there is no shortage of false teachers who exploit the religious sentiments of many believers for their own interests, often pushing them to radicalize certain aspects of the teaching they have received at the expense of the whole — the whole, which is Christ and his Gospel,” the pope warned.

He encouraged students and professors to regard their academic work as a service to the Church and to the search for truth.

“Dear friends, consider…