JUBILEE OF UNIVERSITIES TO BEGIN THIS SUNDAY

VATICAN CITY, AUG 31, 2000 (VIS) - A press conference took place this morning in the Holy See Press Office to present the Jubilee of Universities. Also presented were the world meetings of rectors, of administrative managers and of chaplains, and the world forum of university students. These events will be held from September 3 to 10 and their central theme will be "The university for a new humanism."

The first world meeting of university rectors will be held on Friday September 8, in the 'Aula Magna' of Rome's 'La Sapienza' University. A total of 280 rectors and/or university presidents from all over the world will participate.
The world meeting of chaplains will bring together several hundred priests from 30 countries on all continents. Cardinal Anthony Joseph Bevilacqua, archbishop of Philadelphia, U.S.A., will talk on the theme: "The priestly mission in the world of the university and of culture."

Four hundred university students from 20 nations and representing 15 groups, movements and associations will attend the first world forum of university students and hear a talk by Cardinal Vinko Puljic, archbishop of Vrhbosna, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, on the theme: "Gospel and culture in universities: the hopes of the Church."

During this Jubilee, other congresses will be held in the Holy Land and Lebanon, as well as in Italy where 59 congresses have been organized in 40 universities. The themes may be divided into four groups: the human being, the city of man, the vision of science and creativity and memory. Speakers will number more than 1,500, and participants around 10,000.

In the Vatican at 9 a.m. on Saturday, September 9, the university community will be received in audience by John Paul II, there will then follow the Liturgy of the Word and the presentation of a summary of the congresses. Penitential celebrations in linguistic groups (eight languages) are scheduled for the afternoon and at 6 p.m. there will be a world meeting of ministers of education.

The climax of the Jubilee of Universities will come on Sunday, September 10, when the Holy Father will preside at a solemn Eucharistic celebration in St. Peter's Square.

At the close of the celebrations, a mosaic icon of the Virgin entitled "Sedes Sapientiae" (Seat of Wisdom) - the work of the Jesuit sculptor Marko Ivan Rupnik - will be presented by the Pope to the universities of the world. The icon will first be entrusted to the delegation from the diocese of Athens, Greece, headed by Archbishop Foscolos, then be borne in pilgrimage around dioceses that contain universities.

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