Even today, the old cliché that the Christian faith runs counter to science, thought, and cultural progress is casually repeated. This distortion is largely fueled by the trap of presentism: that perverse tendency to judge past centuries with the codes and sensibilities of the present, ignoring that it was precisely Christian institutions that laid the foundations for the freedoms and knowledge we enjoy today.

However, a rigorous review of history is enough to confirm an undeniable reality: the Church’s vocation for dignified education, the universalization of knowledge, and the inculturation of the Gospel in all the Fine Arts spans without interruption from the beginning of apostolic preaching to the present day.

Pope Leo XIV brought this issue up again in his recent General Audience, recalling that “the Second Vatican Council could not fail to address culture and its relationship to the Christian faith .” There is no serious basis for claiming that the Church has hindered the advancement of knowledge when its work has shaped education across the five continents and fostered humanity’s greatest artistic expressions, beginning with the indisputable fact that “medieval universities, as we know, were born within the Church and contributed decisively to the development of Western civilization . “

Thinking and creating faith from real life

This educational and creative work was not born out of calculation or strategy, but from a fundamental theological imperative. As the Pope explained, “the relationship between faith and culture finds its principal foundation in the Incarnation: if the divine Word became flesh and dwelt among us, faith too is an incarnate reality, interwoven with the culture in which it is immersed . ”

The Christian faith rejects ethereal abstractions. It is called “to become culture, that is, to reach the person in their lived environment, constituted by human words, traditions, religious sense, art and poetry, thought and science .” From Romanesque and Gothic naves to Renaissance frescoes, from Baroque sculpture to mystical literature and sacred music, the Church has not only preserved beauty, but has given birth to it as a path to mystery. Hence the forceful warning of Saint John Paul II, echoed by Leo XIV: “A faith that does not become culture is a faith not fully embraced, not entirely thought through, not faithfully lived . “

Zero tolerance for discrimination

The very DNA of schools, universities, and training centers promoted by the Church has always included a staunch rejection of any kind of discrimination, regardless of the reason. Falling into the shortsightedness of presentism prevents us from seeing how Christianity pioneered the democratization of access to knowledge and beauty in the face of the elites of the time: access to education has never been conceived in Catholic ideology as a restricted privilege or a tool of exclusion.

Having been “sent to all peoples without distinction of time or place, it is not exclusively and indissolubly bound to any race or nation, to any particular way of life, or to any custom, ancient or recent .” For this reason, the Council firmly calls for breaking down barriers: “all those who have the capacity to access higher education […] must have the necessary conditions to be able to do so effectively ,” while also demanding that “the proper and necessary participation of women in cultural life be recognized and promoted . “

Opening classrooms and the arts to the world, without trenches

Far from the myth of cultural colonialism or rigid indoctrination, the Christian message adapts to and respects every environment. The Church “dwells within them and shapes them from within according to the image of Jesus Christ ,” engaging in an enriching dialogue where “it can enter into communion with diverse forms of culture; a communion that simultaneously enriches the Church itself and the different cultures .” Its goal is to combat illiteracy and empower individuals by providing them with the best scientific, artistic, and spiritual tools.

Faith is not lived from the trenches or with suspicion towards the thought or avant-garde movements of one’s time. Gaudium et spes “recommends that we not live our faith with a spirit of opposition or hostility towards the world, culture and its human expressions ,” and invites believers to “live in very close union with other people of their time and strive to understand their way of thinking and feeling . “

In the face of prejudice, simplistic caricature, and the anachronistic bias of presentism, the words of Leo XIV make it clear that achieving “a mature and responsible synthesis between faith and culture is indeed a necessary condition for persevering in the Christian vocation, and also an indispensable requirement for bearing witness to the faith before the world and communicating it to others in a credible way . “