The Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) awarded the honorary Doctorate to Portuguese Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery of Culture and Education.
The ceremony began with a piano concert by a UCA student, and the reading of some passages from the poem School of Silence, by the honored cardinal.
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The Grand Chancellor of the UCA, Mons. Jorge García Cuerva, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, could not participate because he was in Rome, but he was present with a video message. He then addressed Dr. Miguel Schiavone, rector of the study center, to those present.
After the blessing of the plaque and the diploma, the resolution granting the doctorate was read, and the attributes were presented to the cardinal. The Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Father Carlos María Galli, gave a laudatio, that is, a speech in praise of the cardinal.
In a change of plans, instead of doing his lectio magistralis, which he offered to send later by email, Cardinal Tolentino chose to open a space for dialogue with a group of UCA students. In this framework, students from the Theology, Letters, International Relations, Initial Level Teaching, and Communication majors asked their questions.
In his responses, the prefect left a message to the new generations, emphasizing the need to transmit hope: “We are in a moment like a birth, a new world is being born. “We are always born in the midst of so much pain… but we focus on the good, the wonderful, the beauty that is being born.”
The challenges for education and the role of teachers
The cardinal also referred to the Global Educational Pact and called to take education into account as “a common cause.” In this regard, he stated: “Schools cannot only be responsible for education; To educate a young person, the entire society is necessary.”
“We must make alliances, we cannot be left alone in this pact. We need families, social institutions, a lot of dialogue to be able to carry out this task, which in the end is the most important task, because education accompanies us from childhood to adulthood. “It is the desire to learn that keeps us alive,” he said.
He also considered it important to “recognize the social role of teachers, their dignity, their great contribution to the development of our humanities.” To educators, he advised: “Be social, cultural poets, be choreographers of a new reality, because paradigms are in crisis. We need new perspectives, new models.”
Finally, he addressed the communicators and reminded them of their “fundamental role” in the commitment to tell reality, especially in a time of fake news and post-truth, “guarantee that truth and reality exist, that people exist.” .
“A clear commitment to the truth is necessary,” he insisted, and encouraged “removing from anonymity the lives of the simple, of the poor… giving them dignity and telling their stories.”
The cardinal said goodbye with a thank you to the Argentine Catholic University and for the space for dialogue: “Here is the synthesis between spirituality and life, these dialogues are vital to build a humanly alive world, with a comprehensive vision of the human person.”
At the end of the event, Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça celebrated the Eucharist in the church of the Corazón de Jesús, on the university campus.
Juliet Villar
I am a journalist, with a degree in communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non-governmental organizations. Since 2016 I have been dedicated to Catholic journalism, first at the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as ACI Prensa correspondent for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.