The website of L'Osservatore Romano recently posted a "previously unpublished" talk that Pope Paul VI gave during his visit to Aquino, Italy on September 14, 1974. (On that same day, Paul VI also delivered an allocution on St. Thomas Aquinas in the Basilica of Fossanova, which can be found in pp. 539 - 541 of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis for 1974.)
Posted below is the section of that talk dealing with the honor due to St. Thomas Aquinas and his teaching. Emphases mine.
Posted below is the section of that talk dealing with the honor due to St. Thomas Aquinas and his teaching. Emphases mine.
To you, the inhabitants of Aquino, what shall we say? It is certainly unnecessary to urge you to be always happy and proud to be the descendants and fellow-citizens of such a great man, a Saint, a Doctor of the Church, who expounded her doctrine as no one else, perhaps, has succeeded in doing in her history. A great glory for you, a great fortune! Let us hope, nay more let us urge you to be worthy of it!How can a people like yourselves, (and here comes the most pressing and important question) seven centuries after St. Thomas' death and caught up in a historical and social context very different from that in which that Saint lived and worked, be in some way in the line of his tradition? How can you call yourselves children, relatives and fellow citizens of St. Thomas?)You do not claim to vie with him in wisdom or to follow in the steps of his vocation, either religious or intellectual. No one can claim to keep step with such a Master! But all of us who are faithful sons of the Church can and must be his disciples, at least to some extent! We will do this if we give to our religious instruction and formation the importance it deserves to have. Where, if not at Aquino, should the study of our religion, even in its elementary but necessary and wise form, be held in honor and be carried out by everyone with particular commitment? If you are not faithful to the teaching and wise inheritance of study and understanding of the Revelation of God which the Master Thomas witnessed and spread, who can be? If you are not the first disciples of St. Thomas Aquinas, what can the others say?.... “In Aquino, they do not even think about him, so…”This, then, is the lesson that still comes to us from your Holy Master, Thomas Aquinas: let us endeavor to study assiduously and lovingly the Christian doctrine, that taught to you by your Bishop, your parish priest, your priests and teachers of religion, men and women, both in Church and in the schools. Just this morning we received in audience a large group of young students, from many parts of Italy, who were the winners of the "Veritas" Competition, namely, that free Competition for the young who have made a special study of religion. You should know that I thought, “Who knows if there is not a student from Aquino among them!” I don’t know because we did not verify it. But if the Lord gives us life, if the Lord gives us life, may the coming year give us at least one, two, ten or one-hundred of your children from Aquino, where the study of religion is loved! It would be very good..So we take the liberty of stressing this recommendation of ours: if you are really aware of the honor of belonging to Aquino, which gives its name to the greatest theologian in our schools, not only in medieval but also in modern times, try to make a diligent effort in regular and persevering study of religion. It comes to mind that a man of the State and University professor, who is present here today, just a few days ago explained how the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas is the load-bearing structure of our culture!We make this recommendation especially to those students who have chosen the ecclesiastical or religious life as their vocation: honor St. Thomas by studying his thought!The Church, while admitting as legitimate and necessary the knowledge of the new and various forms of religious culture, has not ceased to recommend, also in the recent Council, a preference for the study of the Works of St. Thomas. He is such a Master that he is still considered relevant today and, in the diffusion of so many false or questionable opinions, providential! Let this exhortation of ours go to our seminaries. our religious houses, and even our Universities!And now speaking from Aquino, we address also the teachers of philosophy and theology, who in Christ's Church carry out the great mission of transmitting the genuine doctrine of the Church.We look to them with great confidence, with great hope! We beseech them, in Christ's name, to be faithful to the magisterium that Christ has entrusted to his Church, to be, like St. Thomas, passionate defenders of religious truth in its authentic expression; and let our fatherly exhortation, our encouraging gratitude, our Apostolic Blessing go to them, on this occasion and from this blessed place!
