On his third day in Peru, Pope Leo XIV spoke at the Catholic University of Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo in Chiclayo, where, as bishop here, he had once served as chancellor. “Scientific progress…must not be confused with a privilege reserved for millionaires seeking immortality, while entire peoples suffer from poverty and oppression,” he said. 

He also warned that “science without a conscience ruins everyone’s life” and that “technology without a soul does not truly improve life.”

Leo began his speech saying: “I first thank the Lord, the God of life, for the years that he allowed me to spend on mission in the service of the Peruvian people. I also thank all of you, because during my years as grand chancellor of this institution, you helped me to understand that authority means service, that governance requires listening, and that education is a noble act of hope.”

He recalled “the enduring legacy” of the patron saint of the university, St. Turibius of Mogrovejo, a renowned jurist and archbishop of Lima from 1579 to 1606, “whose life was a shining example of wisdom, charity and justice.” Leo said the saint’s faith and teaching “must continue to be the compass that guides research in these classrooms.”

Leo said that “a university—in particular a Catholic university—is a living community where the search for truth becomes an act of love and service to the great human family, and the quality of academic education is measured above all by its ability to shape young people into wise, honest and mature women and men.”

In a world “that is undergoing complex cultural changes,” he said, “the university is called to be a training ground for talent and a laboratory of meaning, a place where intelligence does not bow to utility, but rather serves the truth faithfully. Above all, it is called to serve Truth—with a capital ‘T’—who is Christ, the Savior of the world.”

In this way, he said, “the Catholic university works to foster the fruitful encounter between faith and reason, and between religion and science, by engaging in humble dialogue, conducting rigorous inquiry and always seeking the common good.” He asserted that “this academic approach frees us from the temptation to produce only a skilled workforce for an exclusive and highly competitive market.”

On the other hand, he said, “a humanistic and Christian education sustains our ability to forge lasting fraternal relationships, so that we may navigate the digital age by moving beyond mere connection toward authentic relationships that foster communion.”

He reminded his academic audience that “technology is not always neutral,” and “at times, its forms bear the imprint, interests and ambitions of those who design and control it. For this reason, it must be studied with a clear mind and a pure heart.”

He warned them that “the most deadly risk is that of submission to the technocratic paradigm, which reduces reality to material data, considering efficiency to be the supreme value.”

Pope Leo called on professors and students “to exercise critical thinking,” and he encouraged them “to seek that wisdom which neither machines nor computer programs can possess.”

St. Turibius of Mogrovejo “lights the way for us,” he said, because in his day “when Indigenous peoples were often subjected to exploitation and discrimination, he defended their human dignity with evangelical fervor”; he learned the languages of the people he served, proclaimed the Gospel in their culture and wrote a catechism for them in indigenous languages. To do this, St. Turibius crossed the deserts of this region on horseback, Leo said, and “his pastoral work bears witness to how the logic of the Incarnation continues to bear fruit in every time and place through the church’s mission.” 

In this context, Leo noted that today’s deserts “are the new forms of moral and civic illiteracy that exclude the poor.”

Leo drew their attention to “a central issue in contemporary thought: the human limit—that is, the human being as limit.” Today, he said, “the promises of transhumanism and posthumanism are multiplying.” He described these as “ideological currents according to which, sooner or later technology will eliminate all disease and pain, as well as aging and even death itself.”

Leo told the professors and students that while recognizing that “scientific progress is a supreme achievement of human intelligence…it must not be confused with a privilege reserved for millionaires seeking immortality, while entire peoples suffer from poverty and oppression.”

“In the face of this mirage, which promotes the illusion of human beings perfected by cybernetics and biotechnology,” Leo said, “Christian anthropology reminds us that a limitation is not a manufacturing defect, but rather the very condition of human grandeur.”

Indeed, he said, “limitations call us to solidarity and openness to the transcendent, while the myth of self-sufficiency traps us in selfishness and leads us to cast aside the weak; recognizing our fragility makes us attentive to the needs of all.”

He recalled that St. Turibius of Mogrovejo “experienced physical limits during his grueling journeys; he fell ill, suffered from exhaustion and faced the misunderstanding of the powerful,” and yet “it was precisely through a life so sorely tested that he transformed the ecclesial and social history of an entire country.”

He told the students present that “you are the ‘natives’ of this new era” and encouraged them to “embrace the opportunities it offers you. Contemplate them in the light of faith, which is a bright beacon in the confusion and darkness of loneliness, boredom and pain.” He reminded them that “faith always gives hope, for it does not deceive like magic, which claims to make every problem disappear.” He added that “both prayer and study transform our minds to the point of changing our lives.”

Pope Leo called on the professors and academic leaders, as they accompany young people in their classes and research, “to offer each one a consistent witness through your lives.” He encouraged them to “be free thinkers, for whom truth takes precedence over opinion, and justice over self-interest.” 

Ever sensitive to the plight of the poor and discarded people, Leo called on the professors as they cultivate their scientific expertise to “translate it into works of social justice, especially for the benefit of the poorest, and in the care of creation, which today is so wounded by profiteering that disregards the common good.”

They applauded vigorously when he finished speaking. From there, the seemingly tireless missionary pope concluded his day by having dinner with the priests of the Diocese of Chiclayo at the university.

Tomorrow morning, he will begin the day by crowning the statue of the Immaculate Virgin in the Cathedral of Saint Mary. He will then take a helicopter ride to Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, the capital of Santa Cruz, a province at an elevation of 6,500 feet, to celebrate Mass. He is the first pope to visit the city.

Gerard O’Connell is America’s senior Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.