NAME
The institute, erected by the Holy See at Ujjain in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, shall be called “Ruhalaya College of Philosophy.” It functions in Ruhalaya Major Seminary, Ujjain. It is owned and governed by the Missionary Society of St Thomas the Apostle and is under the supervision of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.
Nature
Ruhalaya College of Philosophy aims at training young men and women in the art of thinking clearly and critically in their search for truth regarding God, oneself, other persons and the world (VG 82). This envisages, besides an integrative formation on the human, spiritual and missionary aspects, providing “a solid grounding on the philosophical heritage that is perennially valid in order to create a solid basis for theological studies and to pose the necessary premises for the fruitful encounter between the Church and the world, faith and science, the Christian faith, spiritual patrimony and contemporary culture” (cf. Decree of Erection of Ruhalaya). The institute is an educational institution and is not a profit-making concern.
Purpose
The formation programme of the MST pays special attention to forming the students adequately for the missionary and priestly apostolate and a lifestyle suited to it. This requires thorough training in philosophy “ensuring cohesion together with flexibility, and organicity together with dynamism” (VG, Foreword). The institute’s philosophy programme aims to “discern and promote philosophical thinking” (FR art. 63) so as to aid students in their “search for solutions in the light of natural reason” (VG art. 81 § 1) perfectly aligned with Church’s “true evangelical hermeneutic” (VG Foreword). Intended as an institute at “the diakonia of truth” (FR art. 2), Ruhalaya guides her students in sketching an answer to the question of life’s meaning wherein “they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3). Seen as “an indispensable help for a deeper understanding of faith and for communicating the truth of the Gospel to those who do not yet know it” (FR art. 5), philosophical training prepares students “to a level of high qualification” (VG art. 3) required to sail through “the fragmented and often disintegrated panorama of contemporary university studies and…the pluralism…of current beliefs and cultural options” (VG Foreword). With a genuine spirit of philosophical enquiry, Ruhalaya seeks:
•    To investigate philosophical problems according to scientific methodology, based on a heritage of perennially valid philosophy (VG art. 81 §1).
•    To assist young men and women in growing awareness of the dignity, freedom, and transcendent capacity of human reason, and to direct their most fundamental questions to truths of a higher order (Gaudium et spes 14-15; FR 60).
•    To acquaint students with the recent progress in sciences (CCEO 349 §1) and lead them gradually to a solid and consistent knowledge of man, the world and God (Optatam Totius 15).
•    To seek carefully solutions to human problems in the light of natural reason and consistent with the Christian view of the world, of man, and of God (VG art. 81 §1)
•    To brace students that they are capable of teaching and filling other suitable intellectual posts, making competent use of sources, acquainting themselves with their duties of investigation and instruction, and preparing themselves for activities in various fields where university training is necessary or useful (VG art. 81 §2).
•    To smoothen and fortify the road to true faith by attuning the native faculties of the human mind for the fit reception of revelation (Aeterni Patris art. 4).
•    To prepare students in the great intellectual tradition of Christianity equipping them with “a sharp intellectual discretion” (CCEO 349 § 2) capable of promoting Christian culture and values, and undertaking a fruitful dialogue with the people of the time (VG art. 81 §2).
•    To promote dialogue between Christians and non-Christians and to study and investigate the cultural, moral, religious, and philosophical patrimony of India.
•    To study scrupulously the veiled attacks against the truth, especially systematic atheism (GS 19-21), and enable students to use human reason to repel powerfully and speedily the attacks of the adversaries of faith (AP art. 7), and “to defend, even by the aid of human reason, the treasure of revealed truths” (AP art. 10).
•    To provide philosophical formation capable of addressing “the aspirations of the contemporary world and understand the cause of certain behaviour in order to respond in appropriate ways” (FR 60).
•    To help future heralds of Good News in “correctly understanding the modern mind” (OT 15) and in becoming “masters of weighty reasons for the sound demonstration of truth and the satisfactory instruction of any reasonable person” (AP art. 9).
•    To unite reason and faith “in bonds of mutual friendship, conceding to each its specific rights and to each its specific dignity” (AP art. 18; FR 57).
•    To empower students in concrete philosophical enquiry which will allow “the positive traits of popular wisdom to emerge and forge the necessary link with the proclamation of the Gospel” (FR 61).
•    To encourage and promote truly scientific research on questions relating to the socio-political and cultural scenario of the country.