Culture was one of the great areas of Karol Wojtyla’s interest. Suffice it to mention the annual meetings in Castel Gandolfo with scientists and philosophers. These meetings were an opportunity for dialogue, exchange of thoughts, but also served him as a source of information on how far the human mind has progressed in its development and whether this progress serves human life and dignity.
Here emerges the concept of culture as the basis for the comprehensive development of a human being. According to John Paul II, culture makes a person even more human. Culture has roots, principles and values that define the ethos of the nation and the principles of social life. In culture, too, and therefore in memory, the nation finds its roots and the source of defense of its own identity and independence. This is what Poland did in the long and painful period of partitions and occupation.
The Polish Pope spoke about all these matters in the most secular cultural environment, in UNESCO, before repeating them in Fides et ratio. There, he argued that a positive combination of faith and culture can become a real alternative to a world devoid of ethics and marked by materialism and injustice.
With the consent of Fr. Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz – “Testimony”.
TBA publishing house marketing communication. Warsaw 2007
