Pope Benedict XVI visits Gregorian University in Rome

(03 Nov. 2006) : “The Gregorian University of Jesuits transmits faith and morals through an open dialogue with contemporary society but without ambiguity with secular culture” said Fr. P. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, the Rector of Gregorian University. Fr. Ghirlanda made these remarks while welcoming Pope Benedict XVI who visited Gregorian University in Rome on Friday. The Pontiff was warmly greeted by the University staff, top Church officials and a large group of university students. In his welcoming speech Fr. Ghirlanda emphasised the close bond that exists between the Successor of St. Peter and the Gregorian University. The Rector told the Pontiff that today more some 3000 students hailing from more than 130 countries, including 821 dioceses and 84 religious institutes attend the University. The service rendered by the University, stressed the Rector, is above all in the teaching of the faith and moreal principles in keeping with the universal magisterium. Inspired by the Ignatian pedagogy, the Gregorian University offers an integral formation of the person with doctrinal and spiritual aspects that seek development of a free and responsible personality. The University renders a service to build peace, justice and truth, dialoguing with the world of culture and science, with other religions and seeks to establish the dignity of every human person.
In his address to the University officials and the students Pope Benedict said that the immediate object of theological science in its diverse specifications is God himself, revealed in Jesus Christ. The study of philosophy and theology, the Pope said, must confront secular culture, which in many parts of the world tends not only to deny every sign of the presence of God in the life of society and of the individual, but with various means disorients and obscures the conscience of man and seeks to corrode its capacity to listen to the Word of God. Man’s destiny without any reference to God cannot but bring desolation and anguish that leads to desperation, the Pope told his university audience. A rapport is necessary to respond to the fundamental questions that agitate and continue to agitate the heart of man, until finally to give sense to his existence. The Pope concluded by saying that it is not possible to remove from society those ethical values which can help man to live a dignified life.
Instituted in 1551 by St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order, the University was then called ‘Collegio Romano’ – Roman College. However, it came to be called Gregorian University after Pope Gregory XIII, who created a new seat in the University later in 1584.