Leo XIV: Faith and reason belong together

Pope Leo XIV has urged scholars to “meet, diagnose, dialogue, and project” as they examine the role of Christian philosophy in Latin America’s culture. His message was sent to the International Congress of Philosophy that took place October 8–10 at the Catholic University “Nuestra Señora de la Asunción” in Paraguay.

Addressing Grand Chancellor Bishop Francisco Javier Pistilli Scorzara and participants, Leo XIV said the congress aims to shed light on contemporary challenges “from the vantage point of faith,” without sidelining rigorous thought.

He pushed back against the idea — old yet persistent — that philosophy threatens Christian belief simply because many of its classic questions arose in pre-Christian settings.

Citing Pius XII’s Humani generis and echoing St. Augustine, he argued that dismissing philosophy outright ends up dismissing the very love of wisdom.

For the Pope, Scripture invites believers to talk with every school of thought — and to do so in a way that welcomes those who don’t share the gift of faith. He recalled 1 Peter 3:15: be ready to give “a reason for the hope” within you, and let your life speak first.

On the second step, “diagnosis,” the Pope warned against the illusion that human reason or willpower alone can reach what is transcendent. He revisited the ancient debate on Pelagius and, in modernity, the temptation to make faith subordinate to sweeping philosophical systems. Philosophy, he said, can climb toward what is true and ennobling — but it can also slide into pessimism, misanthropy, or relativism when it shuts itself off from grace. Its fruitfulness is measured by its harmony with the truth of being and its openness to light that exceeds us — always in service to human dignity and to a clear sense of good and evil.

“Dialogue,” the third step, has been exceptionally fertile in Christian thought. From St. Justin Martyr to St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas, the tradition shows that faith and reason support and complete one another.

Leo XIV echoed St. John Paul II’s Fides et Ratio: the close relationship between theology and philosophy is among Christianity’s most original resources for exploring revealed truth. For believers and nonbelievers alike, the takeaway is simple: careful thinking makes us more human and opens shared ground.

Finally, “projection” looks to the crossroads of philosophy and faith as a place to read the strengths and wounds of every culture. The goal is not self-congratulation, the Pope said with Augustine, but love for truth because it is true.

He invited philosophers to situate local insights within the great streams of world thought so the Church’s proclamation can be expressed today in language that is clear, compelling, and faithful. This includes forming pastors and missionaries who can speak to real questions without jargon.

Commending the congress to the Lord, Leo XIV invoked Mary, “Seat of Wisdom,” and imparted his Apostolic Blessing. His message lands in an age of rapid technological change and disposable relationships: think deeply, converse widely, keep the big questions open. As the Catechism puts it, even if faith goes beyond reason, “there can never be any real discrepancy between them” (CCC 159).