Last master class of Pedro Rodríguez Panizo
The lecturer of the Faculty of Theology gave his farewell speech, before his imminent retirement, appealing to the lyricism of the Christian life
30 April 2025
The lecturer of the Faculty of Theology (Comillas CIHS), Pedro Rodríguez Panizo, offered his last Lectio before retiring in an emotional ceremony held on the Cantoblanco campus and in which he was accompanied by the rector of the university, Antonio Allende SJ, and by the dean of the faculty, Ángel Cordovilla. Under the title "On the lyrical feeling of Christian life", Rodríguez Panizo recalled his beginnings at the university, alluding to a time "that no cliff can stop" and thanking the faculty for being "a fraternal home in which to think about the faith and the world without ideological aggravation and in peace, in a climate of companionship and encouragement, of moral elevation and total dedication to the theological task that has structured me as a believer’.".
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During his last speech, the professor highlighted the existence of "a community of older teachers, many of whom are no longer with us, of contemporaries and young people who take up the baton of this marvellous tradition and fill us with hope, because this admirable heritage is not interrupted". He also pointed out that the theological community at Comillas "lives installed in the humble attitude of the search for truth, which has never forgotten the ideal of Theology, from which we must always begin and which must accompany all the work involved in its exercise: the responsible vision of faith".
Now getting into the subject, Rodríguez Panizo delved into phenomenology as the foundation from which to approach theology: "Without constant meditation on the conversion to which the triune God invites us in all orders, Theology runs the risk of slipping into a mere science of the religion of Christianity, full of erudition and fascinating data, which, as Karl Rahner recalled in the opening pages of the Fundamental Course on Faith, prevents the journey towards the original experience and knowledge that allow us to understand theological concepts from the depths of existence," he noted.
The lecturer also appealed to the lack of lyricism, both in life and in faith. "When the events that come to us are not mere problems (objects), not even enigmas, but real mysteries, such as death, love, freedom, evil, truth, unhappiness, time, human life, happiness, God, then the reconfiguration of all of us is not only a matter of the future, but also of the future: then, the reconfiguration of all our possibles by the shaking of our present is of such a calibre that it affects us to the core of our being, and reveals itself as the ungraspable, that which cannot be possessed, dominated or controlled, that which has rather us and will always be a mystery," he acknowledged.
In conclusion, he acknowledged that research is a marvellous task which he hopes "to continue to cultivate with renewed enthusiasm": "I will continue to read your work with devotion and to encourage you with all my strength in this task of theology which is capable of filling as many lives as we have".
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