Rosa de Jesús Sánchez Barragán, Dean of the Law School of the Catholic University Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo (USAT) in Chiclayo, Peru, and director of the Institute of Bioethics, was a godmother of Doctorate Honoris Causa granted to Pope Leo XIV.
In an interview with Ewtn News, he explained why the University decided to grant this honorary title to the then Cardinal Robert Prevost.
Receive the main news of ACI Press by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social networks. Subscribe to our free channels today:
For being the godmother of the doctoral of the now Pope León, Sánchez Barragán had the task of pronouncing the discourse of praise or laudation of the then Cardinal Prevost, on November 16, 2023, in which he gave the reasons for this title, for which he had to review the writings of the Holy Father.
“One of the characteristics was how much impact it has had in the legal world, mainly in the issue of human rights, fundamental rights and the issue of social justice, which was where we saw, or where in some way or another we saw, that Cardinal Robert Prevost had given much, not only to Chiclayo, but could also illuminate abroad,” said the also a doctor in law.
“We found a person who had worked a lot the issue of social justice and as I tell you, of human rights, and fit perfectly to be able to give him the Honoris Causa doctorate in law,” he added.
Sánchez Barragán also recalled that Pope León, when he was a bishop of Chiclayo and the great chancellor of the USAT, participated in a congress on the family that was titled “The triggers before family crises.” There Leo XIV stressed the importance of family and Christian coherence.
“He said that a Catholic had to be consistent: the ethics of coherence.
In that sense, he specified that although he has to correctly sanction those who commit crimes, because “today a death penalty is not justified.”
The specialist also said that the Pope “considers that the protection of life, the protection of family and human dignity are undeniable goods.”
Sánchez Barragán also invited more and more the life of the Pope “Leo XIV, because he is very rich: he has worked the immigrant issue, he has worked the issue with young people, he has also worked on the issue of vulnerable societies.”
“And we find a whole world to explore, which is a shepherd – all Chiclayanos have a photo with the Pope – but above all we rescue most is the social sensitivity it has, the deep life of prayer and also the super clear doctrine of the Church.”
Cardinal Prevost’s speech upon receiving Honoris Causa doctorate from the USAT
In his November 2023 speech, the then Cardinal Prevost said a series of challenges in today’s world such as human trafficking, immigration or the role of artificial intelligence.
“Our response to all these challenges requires coherence based on respect for the dignity of human life and an authentic reverence for the image and likeness of God that is in every human being,” he said then.
“If one argues that the right of each fetus to be born must be protected by civil law, backed by civil consensus, then our moral, political and economic responsibilities cannot stop at the time of birth.”
“Those who defend the right of life of the weakest among us must be equally visible in support of the quality of life of the weakest among us, which include the elderly and children, hungry, immigrants and undocumented immigrants,” said Prevost.
The purple also stressed that the Catholic University is a place to promote a way of thinking that focuses on the defense of all human life.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.