Rediscovering new life blood

The prospects of university pastoral care after WYD in Cologne, the preparation of a European meeting of university teachers, and the role of students in pastoral work: just some of the questions at the centre of the meeting of the Co-ordinating Group of the European Committee of university chaplains, being held at St. Gallen (Switzerland) from 28 to 30 April. The meeting is being promoted by the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE). Eleven Bishops’ Conferences are represented: Austria, Russian Federation, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, UK, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine. The Most Rev. Ivo Furer, bishop of St. Gallen, and Father Enrique Climent, delegate of the Federation of European Catholic Universities (FUCE), will also be attending the meeting. The meeting will also discuss the 5th European Day of University Students and the next meeting of the national delegates of university pastoral care (Rome, 28 September – 1st October 2006). The main speakers will include Monsignor Lorenzo Leuzzi, coordinator of the Committee, Monsignor Aldo Giordano, CCEE general secretary, Father Augustin Del Agua, in charge of university pastoral work in Spain and Monsignor Bruno Stenco, who heads the corresponding office within the Italian Bishops’ Conference. The last meeting of European university chaplains took place at Bratislava (Slovakia) a year ago. There are a thousand or so university chaplains in our continent, at the service of a student population that fluctuates in size between 8 and 10 million. FOR THE GOOD OF EUROPE “Why is it meaningful to speak of university pastoral care in Europe today? In the first place because the universities, which arose in the Middle Ages and spread throughout the continent, are there to testify to the fact that the first European unity was far more profound that a mere geographic, mercantile or political unity”. To this first reason Msgr. Aldo Giordano, secretary of the CCEE, adds a second in presenting the meeting of university chaplains in St. Gallen, namely: “The stalled process of European unification, following the negative results of the referenda in France and Holland, shows that the new Europe has a need to find the ideal support given to the first Europe by Christian humanism. The profound cultural changes over the last few decades, the importance of the new discoveries, especially in the field of biotechnology, the negative repercussions of an ever more specialized transmission of knowledge, together with the growth of the direct participation of civil society in the academic world, are now turning the universities into a specific and privileged field of pastoral action, and into a means of new evangelization which calls on the responsibility of all Christian communities. Moreover, the university community, consisting of teachers, students, researchers and administrative personnel, is among the most mobile components of our continent. In this sense, the process of unification of the old continent would undoubtedly find new life blood if the Church were able to accompany and guide the university community to rediscover its primary function, which is the continuous investigation of the truth through research, and the fostering and communication of knowledge”. BRIEF HISTORY. In 1998, the Vicariate of Rome, in collaboration with the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for the Laity organized in Rome, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the University Chapel at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, the first Congress of University Chaplains of Europe in which university chaplains from every country in Europe took part. During his audience of 1st May 1998, John Paul II urged greater collaboration between chaplaincies at the national and European level in view of the approaching jubilee celebrations in 2000: “A world meeting of university teachers and World Youth Day are on the programme of the year 2000 – said the Pope on that occasion -. They are two very significant events, for which it is essential to create closer collaboration between the university chaplaincies at the national and European level, so as to promote a specific preparation and a more qualified participation of the university world”. To this end, at the end of the meeting in Rome, the idea took shape of setting up a small co-ordinating group among university chaplains in Europe. From 1999 to 2000, the European Committee of university chaplains devoted itself to the realization of the Jubilee of university teachers (September 2000). Since 2001 the Committee has been incorporated in the Commission of Catechesis, Schools and Universities of the Council of the European Bishops’ Conferences headed by Monsignor Nosiglia. Since then the European Committee, which meets twice each year, annually holds a meeting of national directors of university pastoral care under the aegis of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (Madrid 2002, Rome 2003, Vienna 2004, Budapest 2005). Since 2002 it has promoted the annual European Day of University Students: a meeting of Italian university students with the Holy Father and with satellite link ups with university chaplaincies all over Europe.