A thousand priests and a million students” “

In contact with a “student population” amounting to one million people, universities may play “an essential and strategic role in the construction of the new Europe”, in a world “characterised by globalization, multiculturalisn and confrontation with the Islamic world and the sects”. This is the presupposition round which the Council of the European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) has convened the national delegates of university ministry in Vienna, from 24 to 26 September. At the centre of discussion – say the organizers – will be the formulation and proposal of a body of “Lineamenta” to be approved by the 34 European Episcopal Conferences and applied and shared by the chaplaincies of all the universities of our continent. “There are over one thousand priests delegated by the bishops and dedicated to the university ministry on a full time basis in Europe today”, recalls Monsignor Lorenzo Leuzzi , coordinator of the European committee of university chaplains and director of the Office of university pastoral care of the diocese of Rome. No European data are yet available for university colleges, many of ancient foundation, and others of more recent construction, especially in Eastern Europe, thanks to re-found religious liberty. SirEurope has spoken about them with Father Giuseppe Grampa , director of the university colleges of the diocese of Milan and professor at the Catholic University. Father Grampa is one of the main speakers at the meeting in Vienna. Other participants will include Cardinal Christoph Shoenborn, archbishpop of the Austrian capital; Msgr.Aldo Giordano, CCEE general secretary; Msgr. Marek Jedraszewski, auxiliary bishop of Posnan and delegate of the Polish Episcopal Conference; Msgr. Tomas Galis, auxiliary bishop of Banska Bystrica in Slovakia, delegate for universities of the Slovak Episcopal Conference; and Msgr. Francis Kohn, of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. What is the “identity card” of a Catholic university college? “First, that of being a ‘collegial’ institution, where students can share strong experiences of community life, in a spirit of acceptance and openness to the outside world that the European reality cannot but promote, with a student mobility that is especially being fostered today through the various programmes for inter-university exchange. Second, the college is a ‘university’ institution, able to offer suitable guidance and tutoring to ensure quality of studies. Third, the college is a place where the young can find an education that is not merely scholastic, but extended to formative experiences at the cultural and spiritual level, with the aim of achieving a synthesis between the meaning of future ‘profession’ and that of personal existence”. What’s the situation in Europe today? “The panorama of colleges in our continent is extremely variegated, so much so that it has so far not permitted a complete ‘mapping’ of their presence in the various countries. Apart from the differentiation of identities due to the different impact of the history of the more ancient institutions and those of more recent foundation, especially in Eastern Europe, there are also those differences due to the fact that some colleges were established for contingent reasons or out of necessity. That’s why it is becoming increasingly necessary for these institutions present throughout the territory of the 25-member Europe to have a greater consciousness of their own ‘identity’. This awareness should start out from common ‘educational guidelines’ that may help colleges – as we hope to do at the meeting in Vienna – to rediscover places of formation and accompaniment, of study and of ‘integral’ human and spiritual formation, as well as community ‘laboratories’, closely coordinated with what is happening in the university ministry in the territory. In terms of Christian roots what contribution can university colleges make? I think that colleges can give an important ‘lesson’ on respect for freedom today. Despite having their own clear and specific formative and spiritual proposal, colleges propose it to their students in a spirit of absolute respect for the identity of others, and without any kind of discrimination: it’s enough to think of the growing presence, in Italy too, of Muslims, Africans, Albanians… In the 13 years I have been involved with colleges, I have never witnessed a case of conflict. When the path chosen is not that of reciprocal imposition or discrimination, peace and serene and harmonious co-existence do not seem utopian or unattainable objectives, as unfortunately the tragic international context might lead one to believe”.