An interesting point

' In a March 7 address to the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, Pope Benedict XVI said that the study of history is particularly valuable today, to address "a society which, heedless of its own past and hence lacking criteria acquired through experience, is no longer capable of harmonious coexistence or joint commitment in realizing future aims."

"Such a society is particularly vulnerable to ideological manipulation," the Pope told the group. He said that the study of history today is being warped by "a methodology which draws inspiration from positivism and sociology" and ignores "entire epochs" because of its ideological blinders.

In the past, the Holy Father continued, the Vatican has been concerned about an approach to history that was "hostile to the Church." But now the situation is more adverse, he said, because "it is historiography itself that is going through a serious crisis." The objective study of history is endangered by "a boundless enthusiasm for progress," which prompt scholars to see the past only as "a dark backdrop against which the "present and future glitter with misleading promise."

Pope Benedict affirmed that the Church takes a keen interest in the study of history, confident that an accurate understanding of past events will vindicate the claims of Christian truth. '

See : http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=57088.

I have nothing to add to that.