VATICAN - Cardinal Filoni inaugurates the Academic Year at Urbaniana: networking to renew the multifaceted face of the Church

Tuesday, 30 October 2018 pontifical urbaniana university   filoni   missionary animation   youth   culture  

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Confirmation of the "varied face" of the Urbaniana University and "the permanent missionary tension of which it is the bearer" were reiterated this morning by Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Grand Chancellor of the University, at the inauguration of the 2018/2019 academic Year.
In his speech in the lecture Hall of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, after presiding in the chapel of the Urban College the "De Spiritu Sancto" Eucharistic Concelebration, Cardinal Filoni recalled that "the image of the varied face of the Church was taken up by Pope Francis" in a crucial passage of the Evangelii gaudium (n.116) and in the Introduction to the Apostolic Constitution Veritatis gaudium, illustrating the last of the "fundamental criteria for a renewal and revival of the contribution of ecclesiastical studies to a Church of missionary outreach" (N.4). From here, he highlighted, the Pope called for "the urgent need to network".
"For a university institution such as ours - continued Cardinal Filoni -, does 'networking' not imply a willingness to renew the 'multiform face of the Church', promoting both the renewal of all forms of human knowledge to divine Sapientia, both by activating the bonds of scientific collaboration with the international university world, as is the case with the more than 100 affiliated institutes?".
The Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Urbaniana University therefore indicated the operative criterion to achieve this purpose: "university institutions will have to propose objectives of intellectual formation and scientific research coherent with an attitude of real 'going forth' in every field of life and knowledge, with the correct practice of dialogue with all the social, cultural and religious 'differences', with the scrupulous study of the 'epochal problems that affect humanity today' and with the consequent commitment to arrive at 'proposing suitable and realistic paths of resolution'."
"The maturation of a different academic mentality" by professors and students of university institutions and "the availability of individual ecclesiastical structures responsible for ensuring that adequate means are not lacking" are essential for this purpose.
Therefore Cardinal Filoni cited the recent experience of the Synod of Bishops, from which emerged, among other things, "the 'desire for change', by young people themselves variously expressed or acutely reclaimed", which was perceived as the need to prepare new formators for young people.
The recent Apostolic Constitution Veritatis gaudium on universities and ecclesiastical faculties proposed some criteria for a formation project that is up to the challenges of the present time, recalled the Grand Chancellor. "These principles can inspire all the educational and formative fields; their assumption will above all favor the formation of new educators, helping them to open up to a vision of wisdom and capable of integrating experience and truth. The Pontifical Universities play a fundamental role at a global level, and at a continental and national level, Catholic Universities and study centers.
The periodic test, the demanding qualification and the constant renewal of these institutions - the Cardinal concluded - is a great strategic investment for the good of the young and of the whole Church". (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 30/10/2018)


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