Conference on Campus Ministry In Catholic Universities
Recently, the first University Pastoral Congress was held in the beautiful city of Rome. This event was organized by the newly created Dicastery for Culture and Education. Under the motto “Towards a Polyhedric Vision”, this meeting challenged us to strengthen our mission together.
It urged us to recognize the different spiritual and material needs present in today’s cultural contexts, specifically within our universities. How can our educational institutions contribute to the mission of the Church?
Universities are unique environments, each with its own challenges and particularities. It is vital to listen to and understand the needs and aspirations of our academic communities in order to respond effectively to what the Church is asking of us.
Let us continue to work together to discern how our universities can be a beacon of light on the path of ecclesial mission!
Testimony of Fr. Manuel Reyes, LC
Director of Ministry, Universidad Anáhuac Puebla, Puebla, México.
The Congress was an experience of communion in the heart of the church, where we understood campus ministry as a polyhedral figure. It has many faces, but all of them are part of a single figure, so that the people and realities that make up the university are seen as valuable for our uniqueness.
The closing of the congress was very significant because in the private audience with Pope Francis, in the Apostolic Palace, after his words he blessed our evangelizing works and greeted us one by one. At that moment, Rector José Mata asked for a blessing for The Network and I was able to give the Pope a talavera “A” symbolic of a first stone of one of our new developments, he blessed it and I told him: ‘I brought you as a gift this symbol of development of the Regnum Christi University Network so that you can keep it close to you and remember us in your prayer for the development of culture in our universities’.
