Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
November 09, 2009

On Oct. 26th Pope Benedict XVI granted an audience to the professors, students and personnel of the Pontifical Biblical Institute on the occasion of its centenary. He recalled how his predecessor Pope Pius X established the institute to have in Rome a center dedicated to specialized studies in the sacred Scriptures and related disciplines. Pope Benedict also thanked the Society of Jesus for its notable commitment both in money and personnel and for its significant contribution to the biblical renewal in the church through its teaching, scientific research and scholarly publications, in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council’s “Constitution on Divine Revelation.” Well-known churchmen like Cardinal Augustin Bea, rector from 1930 to 1949, have trained more than 7,000 professors and leaders of biblical studies groups. In various ministries these experts now serve the church throughout the world.

The Biblicum, as the institute is often called, has also been open to dialogue with other disciplines and with different cultures and religions. The pope urged his audience to move forward with renewed dedication and awareness of the service that the church was asking of them, to bring the Bible closer to the people of God and to address in an appropriate manner the challenges that modern times bring to the new evangelization. Pope Benedict hopes that the sacred Scriptures will become in this secular world not only the soul of theology but the font of spirituality and invigorate the faith of all who believe in Christ.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

At the funeral of Roger D. Haight, S.J., at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in New York on June 25, 2025, Leo O'Donovan, S.J., presided and preached, The following text is his homily from the funeral Mass.
Parish priest of the Holy Family Parish, Father Gabriel Romanelli, receives medical attention, after he suffered light leg injuries following what initial reports said was an Israeli tank attack on the church, according to initial reports, at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, in this still image taken from a video July 17, 2025. (OSV News/Dawoud Abu Alkas, Reuters)
In a July 17 telegram, Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza.”
Despair is easy for anyone who takes seriously the call to love your neighbor as yourself. But hope can come in two ways.
Thomas J. ReeseJuly 16, 2025
A Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Father Terrance Klein
Terrance KleinJuly 16, 2025