Until we meet again ” “in August 2005” “

Until we meet again…in Cologne: on that note ended the Symposium on “University and Church in Europe”, held in Rome from 17 to 20 July, under the auspices of the CCEE (Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe). The conference was attended (according to the latest figures) by over 2000 delegates (including rectors, professors, students, chaplains, bishops, cardinals and university administrators), coming from state, private and pontifical universities in 40 countries. “World Youth Day represents an extraordinary means for evangelising the world of the young”, said Father Francis Kohn , head of the Youth Section in the Pontifical Council for the Laity, citing the 20th WYD, scheduled to be held in Cologne (Germany) from 16 to 21 August 2005, on the theme “We have come to worship him” (Mt 2:2). “The expectations of young people today – explained Father Kohn – are all the deeper, the greater are their failings and the more manifest their fragility. These youngsters are generally ignorant on matters of faith and have often made their way in life without any links with their Christian roots, mainly because their parents did not consider religion a heritage worth transmitting to their children. Many have not been baptised, nor received a religious education; many of them have suffered the separation of their parents, they have grown up in ‘extended families’ and have experienced loneliness. But just because they are young, they want to believe in happiness and cannot accept the bitter fruits of scepticism and despair instilled in them by an ageing society, a society of doubts and fears”. After describing some experiences of university apostolate in Eastern Europe (cf. SirEurope no. 53/2003), we now present some from Western Europe. Dialogue and witness. “The young today are seeking authenticity and integrity”, says Father Jeremy Fairhead, chaplain of the University of Oxford. In his view, priority among the various activities of a university chaplain must be given to “dialogue between the various intellectual traditions”. At Oxford the meetings on “Faith and Reason”, during which professors speak of their academic life and its relation with their own faith, have by now become a tradition. But it is the students themselves, at the university of Oxford, who “publicize” Christianity. They have done so also in the form of two booklets, which they themselves circulate. One is called “Christianity”, and is a simple introduction to the Catholic faith. The other is called “Living Life to the Full”; it is a guide to the moral and social teaching of the Church. “Our first duty – says Father Charles de Hemptinne, chaplain at Ghent, in Belgium – is to provide a welcome”, not only to local students, but also to those (over 100,000 per year) who come to study in Belgium thanks to the Erasmus and Socrates programmes. In the view of Father José Luis Sanchez Garcia, president of the Commission of Catholic education and teaching in Valencia (Spain), the university apostolate “generates culture”, and has “a profound influence” on social life: in some sense it determines the society of the future. “Group life”. “The situation of the Catholic Church in Sweden – explains Philip Geister, chaplain at Uppsala – is that of an extreme diaspora. In a country with almost 9 million inhabitants, only 100,000 are Catholics”. In spite of this, the activities of the university apostolate are widely diffused through the country thanks to the collaboration of the parishes and “group life” – in the form of frequent meetings, attended by a maximum of 10 persons: group life is thus transformed into “social life” based on the primacy of the interpersonal relation and on the exchange of experiences. Spiritual retreats, convivial social get-togethers, excursions: these, reported Father Manuel Prado, are some of the events on the programme of the university apostolate in the diocese of Helsinki; out of the 5 million inhabitants of Finland, 87% are Lutherans; there are some 60,000 Orthodox and 8,000 Catholics, in a single diocese. Courses of philosophy, meetings and debates on the “fundamental demands of life and of our time”, art forums, literary seminars, musical activities: these are some of the events on the programme of the flourishing university pastoral mission at the University of Vienna (Austria), explained Monika Stadlbauer, who said that the “offer” is decidedly varied. There are three chaplaincy centres on university campuses in the Austrian capital.