April 30, 2024

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

SUMMARY REPORT OF THE SYNODAL PHASE

- APRIL 2024 -

Instances that emerged from listening to the narrative phase:

The main contents, recurring and common in the meetings of the synodal groups initiated in the various locations of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, can be summarized as follows:

1. What emerged was the vision of an "outgoing Church" called to openness and dialogue with the world without, however, losing its own identity and without losing the brightness and evangelical matrix that distinguish it.
2. There is a strong need for fraternal bonds, relationships, and spaces for dialogue to be built in the Church and in the University in order to save people from isolation. This will allow in these places to experience home, family, and being pilgrims (viator).
3. Appreciation was expressed for the style of synodality: feeling that "a voice is heard" and not ignored or outclassed encourages a commitment to a more conscious and direct participation in the building up of the Christian community.

The university can and must be a suitable and suitable place to develop and experiment with new styles, supported by a strong cultural commitment that finds in the dialogue between the different components and the different scientific areas almost an internship in what should then be translated into daily life, which is increasingly in need of respectful and constructive dialogue.

1. The Church's mission can be summarised around the "capacity to build community", taking as a reference the description of the first Christian community in Jerusalem. It has also been recalled that it is the foundation that allowed it to be

"Church": the presence of the Lord, the constant reference to him, the life of faith nourished by sacramental practice, the experience of people who manifest mutual esteem towards one another, sincere and visible in the eyes of the world, respect for the variety of charisms

What themes were chosen for the in-depth study of the sapiential phase ?

At the beginning of the pastoral year, the Pastoral Council of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and all the members of the synodal groups chose to propose the five worksheets indicated by the Secretariat of the Synod. To these has been added a sixth card entitled.

"Theological fraternity", with reference to the peculiarity of the Theology courses offered at Università Cattolica as an integral part of the study plan for all degree courses.

As for the narrative phase, the sapiential phase was introduced and coordinated by H.E. Msgr. Claudio Giuliodori, General Ecclesiastical Assistant of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, and involved the entire academic community. All the campuses (Milan, Brescia, Piacenza, Cremona, Rome) were involved and all the components of the academic community (professors, students, technical-administrative staff, ecclesial movements) participated. The synodal journey was also able to count on the participation of the health and administrative staff of the "A. Gemelli" University Hospital in Rome. The involvement of teachers, administrative and technical staff and students fostered the possibility of exchange with the use of the much appreciated method of conversation in the Spirit.

WORKSHEET 1: Mission according to the proximity style

The Church, and therefore also the University, must offer a credible and desirable alternative to individualism, promoting a life of healthy and beautiful relationships. In the University, the student, the administrative employee and the lecturer must find a place where they feel welcomed, where they learn to collaborate and design together with the awareness of being part of a single community. This is particularly true and important in this historical phase where individualism and self-realization are increasingly perceived as totalizing elements, detached from a life of relationships that are not exclusively instrumental.

This perspective challenges everyone to make their time available for free to build this community: are we willing to invest in this sense? Gratuitousness is another revolutionary element in Christ's life: he gave his life for us without expecting anything in return.

It is important for believers to promote in the university world a real active involvement of the teaching staff and of anyone involved in the educational and academic mission, encouraging opportunities for encounter, especially between students and professors. Student and ecclesial associations can also become a concrete presence in helping others, always thanks to the support and dialogue with the teaching staff. Moreover, in the specific case of Università Cattolica, what characterizes its action derives, in its deepest essence, from the teachings and style of Jesus: he taught us to see the other first and foremost as a person, a brother and sister united by the one Father.

FACTSHEET 2: Language and communication

Every university adopts a language that is first and foremost an expression of a recognisable and consciously shared identity. To this general demand is added another: it is not only a matter of making one's own voice heard, but of listening to the demand for meaning coming from society as a whole and, more precisely, from the student population.

At the origins of the current communication difficulties there is often a fundamental misunderstanding, which from the student environment risks also transferring to the teaching staff, on whom weighs the further misunderstanding of a reduction of teaching to a merely functional activity. In other words , there are some major issues shrouded in an unhealthy silence, with negative repercussions also with regard to interpersonal relationships. The problem of poor communication is not solved by using more efficient technical solutions alone. Even more considerable efforts must be made to enhance situations of non-formal communication, so as to promote a fruitful exchange between generations, disciplines and skills.

An extraordinarily fertile territory could be represented by the Social Doctrine of the Church, the knowledge of which is scarcely widespread outside some specific contexts. If, on the one hand, it is true that the foundations of Social Doctrine appear far removed from today's mentality, it is equally indisputable that numerous doctrinal themes, among other things punctually taken up by the Magisterium of Pope Francis (the concept of the common good, care for creation, attention to migratory phenomena, practices of reconciliation and pacification, the overcoming of inequalities, etc.), They are a convincing response to ongoing emergencies and are readily reflected in the minds of young people.

As far as Università Cattolica is concerned, the need to develop a language that is more comprehensible to younger people must therefore be harmonized with the desire to transmit the specific contents of its tradition and mission. The care of communication through social media should not be demonized but taken as an opportunity to communicate the Gospel to the world and to young people, so as to build a community that is not closed but open to dialogue even with non-Christian culture, to encourage dialogue with non-believers or differently believers.

WORKSHEET 3: Formation in the Faith and Life

It is important and necessary to return to a strong and clear Christian proclamation in the academic context. This is a place that, by its very nature, is in constant dialogue with society and is therefore called to a fruitful interaction with the contemporary cultural panorama. For this reason, it would be important to show very clearly how all areas of knowledge, if lived in a Christian way, contribute to answering questions about the meaning of life and to orienting it towards its fullness.

On the other hand, especially in the younger generations, the question of the meaning of life is accompanied by a widespread sense of fear and lack of trust in reality, also characterized by a difficult relationship with the fatigue of putting oneself on the line. Students feel that they are fragile and unprepared for the speed of changes taking place in society and in the world of work; disillusioned with a future that is less and less full of opportunities; disoriented in the abnormal flow of information that often polarizes ideas and harnesses critical thinking.

In this context, there emerges the need for a Christian community in which to experience the concreteness of Christianity: fear and mistrust can be faced if we have someone who reminds us that Jesus is risen and is present, helps us to look at reality as something good. The possibility of recovering a positive outlook on reality and of getting out of the individual level that oppresses us is favored by being able to find someone who teaches us to look at the beauty that exists even in the fatigue of daily life.

The desire to share the Christian experience, in turn, entails certain very specific dispositions and attitudes:

- the choice to cultivate a constant and continuous life path, so that it can become a life proposal in which there are no steps to be completed but rather a journey to be made, accompanied and guided by a teacher.

- People – at every stage of life – need presence, something and someone to fill and fill their lives. To be part of a community, to have a physical place where you can meet and experiment, to grow, learn and rediscover yourself. A chain of people, from the youngest to the oldest, united and connected by age and stories, in which others are continuously formed and formed.

- Testimony and gestures are needed . It is crucial to be able to count on someone who has loved us and has shown us our talents and who shows us in which direction to put them to good use. We are all born out of love, and we are born of love. We need the gaze of those who draw near to us because they love us and lead us to Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life.

- awareness of being Christians and of witnessing to it in every gesture and in every day, living in the Church that we have had the blessing of meeting and living in a concrete place. But more is asked of this Church, because it can and must give more.

The University's mission is also relevant in helping to form solid Christian lay people, certainly the students who will be the future ruling class of the country, but also those who experience the university every day as a context of work and commitment

FACT SHEET 4: Synodality and co-responsibility

In order to implement co-responsibility, it is necessary to work and create a cultural context and a general and personal style open to discussion and dialogue. Co-responsibility requires awareness of the facts and existing situations. And this can only be achieved if there is a process of information circulation that is as wide as possible.

The first step of co-responsibility consists in doing well what I am called to do in my place so as to be, in fact, a witness of Jesus and the Gospel with my work.

Co-responsibility, even if it is a process that costs effort, undoubtedly has positive effects in the areas of life and work. It could also be said that educating a person to be co-responsible means leading him to the full realization of himself and of his own freedom, towards a goal of communion among men: "It is in communion, even if it costs effort, that a charism reveals itself authentically and mysteriously fruitful (Lumen Gentium 130).

This perspective also includes the enhancement of the role of women, avoiding a sterile opposition between men and women. The Church should propose guidelines and educational paths that focus on caring for the relationship between man and woman, overcoming the narcissistic and individualistic drifts of today's society and making people grasp the importance and beauty of love and the sacredness of life. The role of women can also be enhanced by providing active welfare policy tools that can protect, for example, maternity and the care of young children.

FACTSHEET 5: Changing structures

The existing structures can certainly be improved. And yet it is good to start from the recognition that spaces are also the result of a "long history" and are the scene of "our stories". Change should therefore not be understood as a mere rejection of the existing, but rather as a form of improvement adaptation to respond more effectively and in solidarity to changed social and cultural contexts.

A concrete proposal: to organically address the problems related to the Right to Education, in particular the housing emergency for students, with solutions not only dictated by profit logic  but attentive to sustainability and based on an educational perspective. This means, even more concretely, starting the mapping of the existing structures in the Dioceses that can be used as boarding houses/housing; promote dialogue with local and central authorities to cope with the growing costs in many cities in Italy.

FACT SHEET 6: Theological Fraternity

Faith – as Pope Benedict XVI has masterfully highlighted – broadens the horizon of our thought, it is the path to full truth, a guide to authentic development. Faith and culture are magnitudes inextricably connected, and the question of Truth and the Absolute - the question of God - is not an abstract investigation, detached from the reality of everyday life, but is the crucial question, on which the discovery of the meaning of the world and of life radically depends. The knowledge of faith, therefore, illuminates man's search, what reason perceives, faith illuminates and manifests.

The teaching of theology is a special resource of Università Cattolica and for this very reason it must be removed from the suspicion of a mere formal obligation to which all students of the University must submit. Communicating the centrality of theological thought within a Catholic University could be one of the first objectives on which to focus in the perspective of the Synodal Path.

Towards the Prophetic Phase

Some proposals

• Creation of intra-ecclesial working groups (Diocese, Association, movements...) to explore the potential offered by the University in the new evangelization.
• To make systematic initiatives of presence/testimony of teachers and students in Italian Dioceses and Parishes, as well as in schools, especially in the South.

• Pastoral structures should increase lay co-responsibility (e.g. there are parishes run by families and not only by priests)
• With regard to the formation of the clergy: work to ensure that they can grow in skills in favor of greater relational skills.
• Starting from the observation that the university student population often comes from wounded realities , it would be desirable to increase the spaces and possibilities for listening.
• The Church should organize public events, inviting Catholic professors to bring their contribution of critical reflection on reality, to illustrate the Church's point of view, and to highlight the implications and implications of an ethical nature.
• The University is a place that, by its very nature, contributes to a constant dialogue with society and is therefore called to a fruitful interaction with the contemporary cultural landscape. For this reason, believing teaching staff should be urged to show with extreme clarity that all areas of knowledge, if inhabited in a Christian way, contribute to answering questions about the meaning of life and to giving it direction.