2012-05-19 19:29:31

Chair of Pope Paul VI to be instituted at LUMSA


May 19, 2012: "The footprints of his work in history - as the priest in charge of the Italian Federation of Catholic Universities (FUCI), as well as Secretary of State of his Holiness, and later as Archbishop of Milan and Pope - have not been erased with the passing of time, said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Bishops, while presenting Pope Paul VI Chair, at the Holy See Press Office on Friday. The Chair will be instituted at LUMSA (Libera UniversitĂ  Maria SS. Assunta) University in Rome.

Cardinal Re praised the initiative of including the chair dedicated to Pope Paul VI in the sphere of the coursework on contemporary history at LUMSA because Pope Paul VI was one of the great protagonists of the 20th century". He has a place in history, above all for his guidance of the Second Vatican Council, the cardinal affirmed.

Even if the merit of calling for and opening the Council falls to Blessed Pope John XXIII, "Paul VI led it with an expert and sure hand, respectful of the Fathers of the Church".

He also "loved and esteemed his day and looked at the modern world with sympathetic eyes, seeking the reconciliation between the modern age and the Christian faith. There are few like him who have known how to read the anxieties, the worries, the desires, and the weariness of the human being in our days, the Cardinal Re said.

As Pope Paul VI made historic gestures and, as these were carried out for the first time by a pontiff, they can be considered 'firsts': He was the first Pope to ride in an airplane; the first to return to Palestine; the first to renounce the crown, earmarking the proceeds of its sale to the poor; the first to go to the United Nations; and the Pope who abolished the pontifical court, bringing a simpler lifestyle to the Pontifical Household’, Cardinal added.

The historical investigation to be carried out under the chair instituted at LUMSA will be very useful for analyzing two little known chapters of Giovanni Battista Montini's life. The first is the work of formation of the members of the Italian Federation of Catholic Universities because the Pope "had an innate passion for the formation of persons: religious, but also civil, social, and in some way even political formation", Cardinal Re said.








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