2010-07-01 12:53:52

Message from the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People


(July 01, 2010) The mission of those who have both academic and pastoral responsibility in the student world should be to foster collaboration between not only different disciplines but also cultures, said Archbishop Antonio Maria Vegliò, President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People. He said this in his message to the members of the Pontifical Council which will gather for their annual meeting in Namur, Belgium from 8th to10th July 2010. He said that today educational mobility within the world’s universities is ever on the increase having grown almost three fold since 1975. The development of funding and scholarships for third world countries is set to change the patterns of movement of international students and professors even more. He added that there is the development of a ‘European Higher Education Area’ through the Bologna Agreement. The topic they have chosen for the meeting, “Language of faith and language of Sciences, a challenge for international students in a market driven economy” is an important one that goes to the heart of the Church’s pastoral mission within universities, he said. Their concentration with the specific pastoral care offered towards foreign students in Europe can help to open up this significant topic between the relationship of faith and reason and a particular vision in the formation of Youth, he added. He called on them with the words of Pope Benedict XVI that an “authentic human development” calling for a new humanism that as a “fruitful dialogue between faith and reason cannot but render the work of charity more effective within society.” The search for truth must also be one for the truth about ourselves and God’s call, said the Prelate







All the contents on this site are copyrighted ©.