10 thousand in Owerri, 7 thousand in Nairobi, 5 thousand in Adidjan: here are the "figures" of the African university students who will say the rosary with the Pope connected by satellite with these cities of the African continent. On Saturday 11th March, the African students will join their European counterparts to "celebrate" Benedict XVI in his first meeting with the university students of our continent. The highlight of the IV European Day of University Students will be the prayer to the Virgin, "Sedes Sapientiae", which the Pope and the about 25 thousand people who will be there, at 5 pm in the Aula Paolo VI of the Vatican, will say, connected by satellite with Dublin, Saint Petersburg, Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Atanarivo (Madagascar), Nairobi (Kenya) and Owerri (Nigeria). The subject of the Day, promoted by the Catechesis and University Section of Ccee (Council of the European Bishops Conferences) in conjunction with the Office for the University Pastoral of the Vicariate of Rome, is "Christian humanism, the way to a new cooperation between Europe and Africa". "Europe explains to Sir mgr. Lorenzo Leuzzi, director of the Office for the University Pastoral of the Vicariate of Rome has a great responsibility, not just for itself but for the other continents as well: it cannot rediscover its Christian roots unless it appreciates its responsibilities for the present and for the future". Hence the need to "avoid any withdrawal, and rediscover one’s own identity from a universal perspective", by "cooperating" between Europe and Africa "not only within such cooperation but also in terms of development". The European university students will be given the first encyclical by Benedict XVI, "Deus Caritas est".
