Pope Francis has written a message, dated May 14 and released May 19, to participants in a conference (“Adam, where are you?” The anthropological question today) marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Psychology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Jesuit institution founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola as the Roman College.

The question “Adam, where are you?” “invites us to a serious examination of conscience and conversion,” Pope Francis wrote in his message. “The world today is going through a profound anthropological crisis, a crisis of meaning to which the Church has the duty to respond appropriately and effectively.”

“Before our eyes, the terrible tragedy of war is once again unfolding, which is the worst consequence of human destructiveness, both individual and systemic, that is not taken seriously enough and is not duly treated and eliminated at the root,” he continued. “Thus, in the face of the imperative to learn to say no to evil, to lift up those whose dignity is wounded or offended, and the urgent need to train people capable in turn of forging trainers with a solid anthropological background, the Church continues to expect from your Institute a quality service based on the knowledge of psychology with the contributions of theology and philosophy.”