In the laboratories of culture” “

Preparations have begun in Europe for the European symposium “University and Church in Europe”, promoted by the Council of the European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) in collaboration with the episcopal Commission for education, schools and universities of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI). To be held in Rome from 17 to 20 July 2003, the symposium is expected to be attended by over a thousand participants, including bishops, teachers, students and chaplains. The political institutions, the main Catholic movements and associations, the religious institutes, and other Christian churches and communities will also be represented at the symposium by their own delegations. The event, the first of its kind in the history of Europe, is aimed at providing a forum for reflection on the dialogue between Church and University. To this end, the national Episcopal Conferences have been sent a preparatory document in the form of an ‘Instrumentum laboris’. The provisional programme of the symposium and the preparatory document are available on the website www.universitas2000.org An exploratory journey. “Historical memory, cultural prospect, social responsibility, ecclesial dimension”: these are the fields of research exemplified in the preparatory document of the symposium, in which “the situation of the universities in Europe will be explored both in its roots and in its prospects”. Hence the importance of “not obliterating the historical memory”: it is in fact from the “open exploration of the past” that “the university finds the motivation to testify to its role as cultural proposal and project of civilization”. From this ‘rediscovery’ – it is stressed in the ‘Instrumentum’ – “emerges the original vocation of the university, called to be a place where access to knowledge, passion for truth, interest in the human situation take shape; a place where the person finds creative capacity in his dignity and in the relations that constitute it and that intersect in the complex social network of our time”. Church and University: a dialogue to be deepened. “The Church – says the preparatory document – does not advance hegemonic claims of any kind” in relation to the university structures”: “not only out of respect for their legitimate freedom of expression and conviction, but also in fidelity to her own nature and tradition. She is committed, rather, to a service of genuine humanism”: a category in which “the Church’s own agenda” may enter into dialogue with “the academic view of knowledge”. This is, according to the ‘Instrumentum’, “a new approach that needs to be constructed with effort but also with great hope”. Especially in this critical moment in the life of Europe – say the organizers of the symposium –, it is essential that “dialogue be deepened on the great questions of civilization and the new European citizenship, the life of man, the models of economic development, the forms of political action, the systems of social communion, cultural pluralism. New models of development and a new model of society may be born from this dialogue”. Character and modes of presence. Some “peculiar modes” of university apostolate are also outlined in the ‘Instrumentum laboris’. “University apostolate – says the document – welcomes and enhances the role of the associations, movements and groups of faithful that are active in the universities, each according to its own character”, and that are asked to pay greater “attention to the international dimension, ever more frequent in university curricula (Erasmus, Socrates…)”. In the document’s view, “the heart of the university apostolate is the chapel: place of encounter and spiritual dialogue, place of personal and group formation, centre of propulsion for truly Christian cultural animation”. Among the new possibilities for the Church’s presence in the universities, the ‘Instrumentum’, quoting the words of the Pope, identifies the “laboratories of culture” as the places in which “the witness of faith may assume a typical cultural value”.