As our own Francis X. Rocca wrote, Pope Benedict XVI cancelled a visit to a state university in Rome after students lodged protests against his proposed formal address.

Now, the Vatican has released the text of what the pope would have said. It seems to be only available in German and Italian at the moment. But CNS has some translated snippets.

Among the highlights: “What should the pope do or say at the university? Certainly, he must not try, in an authoritarian way, to impose on others’ faith, which can be given only in freedom.” Hmmm, Peter Phan, anyone?

And: “Various things said by theologians over the course of history or put into practice by church authorities have been shown to be false,” he said, but the example of the saints and the Catholic Church’s influence on the development of humanism and of various cultures “demonstrates the truth of this faith in its essential nucleus.”