VATICAN CITY, MAR 4, 2005 (VIS) - The Third European Day for Universities, in preparation for World Youth Day in August in Cologne, Germany, will be celebrated throughout Europe tomorrow on the theme "Intellectual and Scientific Research, a Way to Meet Christ." At 5:30 p.m. there will be a Marian prayer vigil in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican during which Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar for Rome, will read a message through which the Holy Father will spiritually accompany this encounter.
There will be a satellite linkup with simultaneous events in cathedrals and shrines in Europe. The national gatherings will be led by Cardinals Maximilian Sterzinsky in Berlin, Jose da Cruz Policarpo in Lisbon, Lubomyr Husar in Kiev, Antonio Maria Rouco Varela in Madrid, Josip Bozanic of Zagreb, and Tarcisio Bertone in Genoa, and by Archbishops Francesco Cacucci in Bari, Ioan Robu in Bucharest, Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk, auxiliary of Kiev, Wasyl Medwit, apostolic vicar of the apostolic exarchate of Kiev, Rrok Mirdita of Tirana and Bishop Alan Hopes of Westminster
An estimated 10,000 young people are scheduled to be present in the Paul VI Hall where a number of them will give reflections on and witness to their faith and all will recite the Rosary.
Starting today, the Pontifical Lateran University is holding a three-day European workshop for university professors on the theme "Intellectual Research, A Way to Meet Christ. The teaching of the Encyclical 'Fides et Ratio'." Copies of the encyclical will be given to university students. Following the vigil in Rome, young people will accompany the Cross in a candelit process to the church of St. Agnes in Piazza Navona.
This university day is organized by the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe with the purpose, says a CCEE communique on the event, of "building a new humanism, gift and resource for the continent's future generations."
"The aim of this annual day," says the press release, "is to respond to the extraordinary Magisterium of John Paul II who called on university communities, as centers of scientific research, of producing knowledge and of the cultural and professional formation of the young generation, to build a new humanism which proposes once again the Christian roots of Europe by bringing them out into the open.
"The foundations of this humanism are trust in reason as a tool for getting to know the truth about humanity, the primacy of the person over technology, the opportunities that globalization offers to the world today to promote communion and friendship between peoples, the need to participate in social and political life with a view to serving one's brothers and sisters, and the development of intellectual charity as a mission of the university world."
.../THIRD UNIVERSITY DAY/CCEE:RUINI VIS 20050304 (430)
