Pope Francis celebrates 'brilliant' mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal
In a new Apostolic Letter released on the day he would have turned 400,
Pope Francis praises the “brilliant and inquisitive mind” of the French
thinker Blaise Pascal.
"A tireless seeker of the truth".
That’s how Pope Francis defines Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, physicist and philosopher born 400 years ago today.
The Pope has dedicated an Apostolic Letter to him, stressing his scientific brilliance, concern for the poor, and relentless search for God.
The letter
A key theme of Pope Francis’ letter is the “brilliant and inquisitive
mind” of Pascal. A child prodigy, he made important breakthroughs in
mathematics and, at age 19, invented an arithmetic calculator, a
forerunner of the modern computer.
The Pope stresses that Pascal used his intellectual gifts to wrestle
with “the questions that troubled his age”, inventing, for example, the
“five-penny coaches” system, the world’s first public transport network.
The Holy Father goes on to praise Pascal – who, aged 31, underwent a
conversion experience he referred to as the “Night of Fire” – for his
nuanced understanding of the role of reason in religious belief.
On the one hand, the Pope says, Pascal argued for the "reasonableness of
faith in God”; on the other, precisely because of his own intellectual
prowess, he also recognised reason’s limits, and stressed the importance
of responding with faith to God’s call.
A final theme to emerge from the letter is Pascal’s attention to those less well-off than himself.
The Pope quotes Pascal’s words on his deathbed: “If the physicians
tell the truth, and God grants that I recover from this sickness, I am
resolved to have no other work or occupation for the rest of my life
except to serve the poor.”
“It is moving,” Pope Francis writes, “to realize that in the last
days of his life, so great a genius as Blaise Pascal saw nothing more
pressing than the need to devote his energies to works of mercy.”
Cardinal Tolentino: Pope “profound admirer” of Pascal’s
At a press conference convened to present the Apostolic Letter,
Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça – the Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery
for Culture and Education – stressed that Pope Francis is a “profound
admirer” of Pascal.
The Cardinal noted that the Pope has released (or is planning to
release) a number of such Apostolic Letters, on figures, such as Dante
Alighieri and Saint Therese of Lisieux, whom he judges “beacons” for the
contemporary world.
Pascal, the Portuguese Cardinal said, is one such beacon, because he
“brings everything together”: science and faith, philosophy and
mathematics, spirituality and a practical mindset.
He also stressed that Pope Francis’ letter, as well as discussing the
well-known aspects of the French writer’s life, makes an original
contribution in that it delves into lesser-known territory, such as his
concern for the poor.
In response to a question about Pascal’s association with Jansenism, a
controversial theological movement in the early modern Church, the
Cardinal said that the French writer was “perfectly Catholic.”
