Pope Francis: "It is essential that Catholic universities build a culture of peace"

The director of the Centro de Enseñanza Superior Alberta Giménez (CESAG), a centre attached to Comillas Pontifical University, Julia Violero, and the director of Strategy and Communication, Xiskya Valladares, held a private audience with Pope Francis in Rome as part of the group of representatives of the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU), which was celebrating the first centenary of the federation.

Pope Francis urged those present to "network. Today there are almost two thousand Catholic universities in the world. Imagine the potential that could be developed by an even more effective and operational collaboration (...). In a time of great fragmentation, we must have the audacity to go against the tide, globalising hope, unity and harmony, instead of indifference, polarisation and conflict".

The Pope also pointed out that just as the IFCU was born in 1924 after a great conflict, the First World War, "we are still celebrating this centenary in the midst of a war scenario, the third world war in pieces. That is why it is essential that Catholic universities play a leading role in building a culture of peace, in its many dimensions, which must be tackled in an interdisciplinary way.

Violero presented the Pope with a copy of her book Aún no estoy en disposición de hacer historia: la espiritualidad de Alberta Giménez Adrover: integrar la propia vida experimentando al Dios providencia, a volume based on her doctoral thesis and published by the CESAG in 2013. For her part, Xiskya Valladares presented the document iMisión No juzgar y perdonar, debatido con motivo del Sínodo de la Sinodalidad.