VATICAN CITY ­ 16th February 2002. The Holy Father received the members of the Dun Scotus Commission of the Order of Friars Minor in audience at 11.30.

The greeting of the Minister General

Rome, 16th February 2002

Most Holy Father,

With great joy and trepidation we asked to be presented to Your Holiness in order to bring you the gift of this volume of the Opera omnia of Blessed John Dun Scotus. It is the fruit of the patient and meticulous work of the Brothers who compose the Scotus Commission, which since 1939, by wish of the Minister General of that time, was entrusted with the care of the critical edition of the works of this our Blessed brother, after the example of so much done already through the works of St. Bonaventure.

It is a question of a service that our Order offers to the Franciscan Family, certainly, but also to the whole Church and to the world of culture and thought. Your Holiness confirmed the cult "ab immemorabili" of our brother John Duns Scotus in 1991: the philosophical and theological reflection of this great Master of the Franciscan school, remembered as the subtle Doctor and of the Immaculate, holds a singular position in the context of medieval thought: for this reason his thought deserves to be known precisely, from it original formulation. With this aim, the Scotus Commission was instituted: various other Friars have followed on and in the course of these 63 years they have published 12 volumes of the works of Duns Scotus. It is a work that requires patience, not show, which is still far from completion; nevertheless, we are convinced that it would be precious for the whole Church and for all evangelising activity. The long history of the different expressions in which the Franciscan charism is "incarnate" shows clearly the fertility of the relationship between intellectual commitment and the seriousness of spiritual experience: on the basis of the experience of God, human intelligence receives new strength in the search for truth; and the truth found demands to be shared, announced. There is no authentic experience of God that is not transformed into new light for the intelligence and into a new impulse to announce.

We ask Your Holiness to bless this endeavour of study and research: the approval of the Church will constitute the greatest recognition of the service carried out and the most efficient encouragement to continue the work in hand.

Br. Giacomo Bini, ofm
Minister General

Discourse of John Paul II

To the Most Reverend Father
Br. Giacomo Bini
Minister General of the Friars Minor

1. With lively joy and cordiality I direct my greeting, first of all, to you, Br. Giacomo Bini, to the members of the Scotus Commission and to all who work in the General Secretariat for Formation and Studies of your Order, and then, my affectionate thought to the whole Order of Friars Minor.

I am very grateful for the gift of the Volume VIII of the Opera Omnia of Blessed John Duns Scotus, in which the last part of book II of the Ordinatio, the last and most important work of the subtle Doctor is quoted.

The figure of Blessed John Duns Scotus, who my predecessor, Pope Paul VI, in the Apostolic Letter Alma Parens of the 14th July 1966, defined as "the perfection maker" of St. Bonaventure, "the most qualified representative" of the Franciscan School, is well known in philosophy and Catholic theology. On that occasion Paul VI asserted that in the writings of Duns Scotus "latent certe ferventque Sancti Francisci Asisinatis perfectionis pulcherrima forma et seraphici spiritus ardores", and added that from the theological treasure of his works it is possible to dig up precious ideas for "serene conversations" between the Catholic Church and the other Christian Confessions (cf. AAS 58 [1966] 609-614).

2. The Works of Duns Scotus, reprinted many times in recent centuries, were in need of a great revision in order to be freed from the many errors of scribes and from the interpolations made by disciples. It was no longer possible to study Scotus in those editions. A serious critical edition, based on the manuscripts, was required. It was the same requirement that had been perceived for the Works of St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas.

This task was entrusted by the Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor and by his Definitory to an appropriate team of scholars that bears the name of the Scotus Commission and was installed in the Pontifical Athenaeum Antonianum of Rome. Up to now the published volumes are twelve. In them are identified and indicated, with great commitment, the direct and indirect sources which Scotus used in drawing them up. All the information and useful indications are given in a list so as to understand better the thought of the great Master of the Franciscan School.

Duns Scotus, with his splendid doctrine on the primacy of Christ, on the Immaculate Conception, on the primary value of Revelation and of the Magisterium of the Church, on the authority of the Pope, on the possibility of human reason to make, at least in part, the great truths of the faith accessible, of showing the non-contradictoriness of them, remains even today a pillar of Catholic theology, an original Master and rich in ideas and stimuli for an ever more complete knowledge of the truths of Faith.

3. Dear members of the Scotus Commission! I am pleased to encourage your work so that, as the Ratio Studiorum Ordinis Fratrum Minorum says: "The Study Centres of the Order, like the Scotus Commission, through their scientific and editorial activity carry out a service of great importance in regard to the preservation and diffusion of the historical, theological and spiritual heritage of the Order" (124). I very willingly take advantage of the occasion to encourage the young Friars to prepare themselves suitably to continue teaching and research in the Centres of Research of the Order.

I make the wish that in the year 2004, the year in which the 150th Anniversary of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary takes place, the Scotus Commission can publish Volume XX, which will contain the III Book of the Lectura, as yet unedited, in which Duns Scotus, for the first time, defended the Marian privilege and earned the title of "Doctor of the Immaculate".

I entrust the work to the Queen of the Franciscan Order, while from my heart I impart to you, Minister General and to you here present and to all those who make your work possible, my affectionate Blessing.

From the Vatican, 16th February 2002

Joannes Paulus II

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