A "feeling in common"” “

Realizing a “European space of higher education by 2010: that is the ambitious objective of European universities, to give concrete form to the goals set out in the previous declarations of Paris (1998), Bologna (1999) and Prague (2001). The objective was discussed by Rafael Puyol Antolin , rector of the Complutensian University of Madrid, on opening the meeting of the European Committee of university chaplains, held in the Spanish capital in recent days. Promoted by the CCEE (Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe), the meeting was also attended by the delegates of university apostolate. In all 20 countries took part. At the centre of discussions was the preparation of the Symposium due to be held in Rome from 24 to 27 July 2003 on the theme “University and Church in Europe”. It will be preceded by the Forum of the oldest universities of Europe (Rome, 8-10 December) and by the European Day of prayer of university students, which will be celebrated on 15 March 2003 on the theme “intellectual charity”. There are some 500 dioceses with universities in Europe. Below we present some “thoughts and testimonies” from the Madrid meeting (cf. also the reports in SIR Europe nos. 30 and 34/2002, and SIR no. 69/2002). “Mobility” and permanent formation. The existing university system, in Antolin’s view, is “planetary, permanent, immaterial and immediate”, as well as being characterized by an “ever growing mobility” of the student population, thanks to EU student exchange programmes like “Erasmus”, “Socrates” and “Leonardo da Vinci”, which this year alone will involve roughly a million students, in 1,800 universities in 30 countries. Miguel Gassiot Matas, president of FUCE (Federation of Catholic Universities of Europe), stressed that the watchword for the 12 million European students today is “permanent formation”; it must – he said – take the form of a ‘personalized’ educational offer, if universities are to respond to the growing fragmentation and specialization of knowledge, and to the complexity of the global challenges that require a common and universally shared view of man”. The problem of a student population “often indifferent, impermeable or neutral” to values was discussed by Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid. He stressed the “strength” of Christian thought and witness as a “necessary antidote” to secularization. From East to West. The theme of a “common feeling” recurred again and again at the Madrid meeting, in spite of the very different situations in East and West. According to Peter Varnai, chaplain of the Catholic University of Budapest and national delegate for university apostolate, “the differences between eastern and western Europe are being reduced, not only in the economic field, but also in lifestyle”: the task of those who work in the universities is therefore especially to show that “the deepest human needs cannot be satisfied only by consumerism or by the values of this world”. In the view of Czeslax Rychlicki, chaplain of Torun and national delegate for university apostolate in Poland, the “strength” of the Polish Church, in the years of communism, “was its choice to remain always on the people’s side and thus to lay the foundations of the new ‘flourishing’ of the faith that has characterized the post-Wall period”. Combating “a conception of life based on the primacy of money and success at all costs”: that, in the view of Adrian Boboruta, national delegate of university apostolate in Bucharest and professor of philosophy in the city’s only theological faculty (part of the State University), is one of the challenges that the former communist countries of Eastern Europe must face, after the “inebriation” that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall. Even in a “free university, provided with considerable financial resources” like that of Ghent, “the Church, as a minority, is called to reflect on its identity, to return to its roots and seek to react to an attitude of neutrality or indifference to Christian values”: convinced of this is Dieter Van Belle, national delegate of university apostolate of the Belgian diocese. Very similar is the situation in Sweden, where “a small but very active group” of Catholic students at the University of Uppsala – says Philip Geister, national delegate for university apostolate – is trying to involve their own fellow-students and help them to “overcome the separation between faith, as individual choice, and social responsibilities”. In a country like Ireland, which has “changed very rapidly over the last five years”, especially due to the influx of some 500,000 refugees, the challenge facing the universities is “how to respect differences, especially at the level of interreligious dialogue: “Catholics – point out John McNervey and David Brough, chaplains of the University of Dublin – must combine truth and love with a view to a new evangelization conducted not by clericalism but by direct witness at the side of the young”. A crucifix… that “speaks”. A wooden crucifix “that speaks” also to Shintoists, Buddhists, Moslems, nonbelievers… : that’s the aspiration of the “Edith Stein” students’ hotel in Vienna, which provides accommodation to about a hundred youngsters; twenty of them, says Monika Stadlbauer, “have chosen to live in common” and form a kind of “community within the community”. Their life is punctuated by moments of prayer, “lectio divina”, silence, dialogue and discussions of their daily activities. The chapel of the Viennese hostel was named after Edith Stein in 1994, when the saint who is now the patron of Europe was only a blessed (and by special permit): the event “was a small revolution for the city”, recalls Monika. “In dialogue with the city”, to “restore faith” to young people today, starting out “from the actuality of the Church’s social doctrine”, in a university context, like that in Vienna, where even the faculty of theology (within the State University) risks “being frequented by Catholics only in name”: this, sums up Monika, is the common denominator of the activities that revolve around the hotel she runs and which she calls an “integral part of the university apostolate”, also in view of the “city mission” that will begin simultaneously in Vienna, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris later this year. Spiritual exercises, pilgrimages, bible groups, but also sporting “fixtures” and psychological counselling: just some of the activities that characterize the university chaplaincy in Zagreb, headed by Dragan Skarica, who lives just a few steps from the hostel complex that provides accommodation to some 10,000 university students, of whom 87% are Catholics. “Being constantly at the disposal of the young”: for Josyf Ivan Mylian, delegate for university apostolate at Veroina (Ukraine), that is the “secret” of university chaplaincies, for which a “vademecum” is being prepared to help them to “coordinate their efforts and boost their development”. “Speaking witness”. “Young people today are seeking a speaking witness, a witness that speaks through life”, explains Father Michael Roussos, national delegate of university apostolate of Athens and Salonika; this, he says, is the “philosophy” of the international students’ hotel of the diocese of Athens, which he runs, and which currently provides a home to some fifty university students of fifteen different nationalities, a third of whom from third world countries. Catholics, Orthodox, Moslems, Protestants, nonbelievers: “We are not afraid to tell everyone who we are, not by making demands of them, but simply by helping each person of good will in his or her own personal search and with great respect for the identity of each”. The option for the poor, says Father Michael, characterizes the activities of the centre run by the Jesuits: in spite of the absence of state funding, the hostel in Athens provides free accommodation to third world students, providing them not only with board and lodging but also with healthcare and assistance in renewing their residence permits. Maria Michela Nicolais SirEurope correspondent in Madrid