ROME, AUGUST 27 (ZENIT.org)

    Beginning today, some 4,000 scientists from around the world, experts in organ transplants, are meeting in Rome's Palace of Congresses for the 18th International Congress of the Transplantation Society, the most important organization of its kind. On Tuesday, John Paul II will address the gathering at the Palace of Congresses. This morning, the experts attended Mass in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, celebrated by Australian Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

    During the homily, after stating that today we witness the sad effects of philosophy having claimed absolute autonomy for itself, affecting legislatures and even far-reaching judicial decisions, Cardinal Cassidy said: "If individual good is the 'suprema lex,' in other words, the supreme norm, then, as in the jungle, the most powerful will survive and the weak will succumb. You members of the Transplantation Society are men and women who understand the force of reason. In face of fundamental questions like: 'Who am I? From where do I come? Where am I going? Why does evil exist? Is there an afterlife? Can we find an answer only through human reason?' Undoubtedly, reason can help us to an extent in this search. However, if reason only concentrates on human activity, it fulfils only part of its vocation. It must take us beyond the truth of experience and human activity to reach the truth that transcends this activity. In order to reach this objective, it must necessarily be accompanied by faith, because in our search for truth and knowledge of ourselves, God himself has come to our aid."

    Cardinal Cassidy said that in the encyclical "Fides et Ratio," John Paul II reminds us that the search for truth, even when it affects a limited reality of the world or humanity, never ends; it always leads us towards something that is above the immediate object of study, towards questions that give access to mystery.

    This is the conviction "that leads us to look at Jesus," the Australian Cardinal said. Indeed, "in him we find the answer to the most important question of all: 'Who am I?' Sometimes, it can be difficult to believe. On occasions, the Gospel's words can be hard but, like Peter, in the end we must say: 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone you have words of eternal life!'" ZE00082708

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