Not only memories, but choices and actions

On April 21, 2025, Pope Francis reached the Father’s house. Our academic community has expressed its heartfelt condolences on the passing of His Holiness the Pope. As MeDSP Lab, we share in our university’s expression of mourning.

Pope Francis has been named “the Pope of the peripheries” to recall his tireless appeal to consider all the peripheries of life, where there are poverty, conflicts, wars, inequity, and a sense of loneliness and powerlessness. A special attention has always been given to the environment and respect for the earth. Despite his role as the head of the Catholic Church, he consistently promoted respect for different cultures and religious beliefs, envisioning a future in which people, regardless of such differences, could work together to transform every desert into a forest.

We would like to recall here some words from the 2021 International Meeting of “Science for Peace”. In that occasion, he remarked the urgency for “the world of science to rethink the prospects for prevention, treatment and health organisation, taking into account the anthropological implications linked to sociality and the quality of relations between family members and, above all, between generations. No scientific knowledge should walk alone and consider itself self-sufficient.” He said that the historical reality is increasingly becoming one and “needs to be served in the plurality of knowledge, which in its specific nature contributes to the growth of a new culture capable of building up society by promoting the dignity and development of every man and woman“.

“Science is a great resource for building peace. I ask you to guide the education of the younger generations by teaching them not to fear the effort that research demands. The Master also lets Himself be sought: He instills in everyone the certainty that when one searches honestly, one encounters the truth. The changing age needs new disciples of knowledge, and you, dear scientists, are the teachers of a new generation of peacemakers.”

This is a small part of the teachings of this great man, which we want to carry with us in our academic journey, so that remembrance may live not only in memory, but in the choices we make and the actions we take.