Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - This morning Pope Benedict XVI went to the Medicine and Surgery Faculty of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Agostino Gemelli University Hospital in Rome on the occasion of the inauguration of the new academic year. It was not the first time that a Pope opened the academic year.
“A very special day to be remembered in the years to come” said University Rector Prof. Lorenzo Ornaghi in his address to the Pope. “Very kindly your Holiness only a few months after your election to the see of Peter accepted our invitation to comfort, illuminate and bless the path awaiting us in this 85th year in the life of our university. And our joy is all the more intense Holy Father because your participation is a visible sign of continuity with a tradition so dear to the heart of our college: from Benedict XV to John Paul II, who made that window on the tenth floor of the Agostino Gemelli Policlinic a cathedra of suffering humanity and blessed hope.
This is the second time that Benedict XVI visits the Pope’s Catholic University. In fact he returns today not long after having been here to visit his brother admitted for treatment on 5 August.
However the bond between Joseph Ratzinger and the Catholic University is dates back even further. The then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith gave two lectures here: the first on 30 November 1988 when he took part in the ceremony to open a new department for children’s brain surgery. The second was on 8 February 1992 when our Hospital in Milan had the honour of having the future pope as a guest for the presentation of a book Svolta per l'Europa? Pope Benedict also came several times to the Cattolica to visit Pope John Paul II.
Founded in Milan in 1921 by Fr Agostino Gemelli, the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore has five sites: Milan, Brescia, Piacenza-Cremona, Roma and Campobasso, a total 42,000 students and 1,400 teachers. The Cattolica is the largest Catholic university in Europe.
The birth of the Università Cattolica is closely connected with the figure of Pope Benedict XV: to this pontiff in fact we owe the 1920 decree of institution. Later Pius XI in a letter dated 22 April 1922 addressed to Fr Agostino Gemelli, outlined the physiognomy of the Università Cattolica. That was the first in a long series of addresses which pontiffs during the past century have dedicated to the Cattolica, as part of a rich and paternal dialogue.
On 9 November 2000, the Jubilee year, after a Mass presided by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian Bishops Conference, 500 people filled the auditorium to celebrate with Pope John Paul II the opening of the academic year. In his long pontificate John Paul II visited the College on various occasions. Among his predecessors on 5 November 1961 Pope John XXIII solemnised with his presence the birth of the Roman faculty of medicine and surgery. In 1976 Pope Paul VI celebrated mass at the Gemelli on the feast of Corpus Christi. (AP) (25/11/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe:46; Parole:555)
