By Hilary White
ROME, January 21, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Ten times the usual number of faithful were in attendance at this Sunday’s Angelus address by Pope Benedict XVI, after he was snubbed last week by the science university, La Sapienza. The Vatican estimated the crowd at about 200,000, who came after being invited by vicar of Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, to make a show of support for the Pope. The normal crowd for the Angelus is about 20,000
“Thank you all for this show of solidarity,” a smiling Pope told the cheering, clapping crowds who came from all over Italy. Many in the crowd carried banners denouncing as censorship the action by the La Sapienza professors and students.
Pope Benedict XVI had cancelled an invitation to speak at the commencement of La Sapienza, after a group of 67 academics signed a letter requesting that university rector Renato Guarini withdraw the invitation. The professors described the Pope as the “enemy of free scientific research”.
Benedict told the crowd on Sunday, “I encourage all of you dear university students to always respect the opinions of others and to seek, with a liberal and responsible spirit, truth and righteousness.”
Fabrizio Cicchitto, a senior member of Forza Italia party, called the appearance of the crowds in St. Peter’s Square a “testimony against the barbarians”. Leftist students had threatened to disrupt Pope Benedict’s speech by playing loud rock music and shouting.
La Sapienza was founded in 1303 by Pope Boniface VIII. A large group of students from the university attended the Wednesday General Audience at the Paul VI Hall on January 16 as a show of solidarity to the Pontiff. They displayed banners that read “If Benedict doesn’t come to La Sapienza, La Sapienza goes to Benedict.”
Reuters quotes Andrea Sterbini – a computer science professor who was one of 67 academic signatories who said, “I think the Pope’s visit is not a good thing because science doesn’t need religion. The university is open to every form of thought but religion isn’t.”
Pope Benedict himself, however, took a more classically liberal view saying, “I am bound to the university environment, which was my world for many years, by the love for the search for truth, for debate, for the frank and respectful dialogue of the positions in question.” He expressed his regret that he was unable to address the students at La Sapienza.
While the Sunday address was covered by Reuter’s news service and the Associated Press, the BBC covered only the letter from the faculty and the protest, organized by leftist secularists and consisting of about a hundred students staging a “sit-in” in the university’s main hall on Thursday.
At the close of his Sunday address, the crowd burst into applause and chants of “Viva il papa” and “Freedom”.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Students Flock to Pope’s Wednesday Audience After Speech Cancelled over Protests
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jan/08011602.html