Father Jesús Villagrasa, LC welcoming Cardinal Beniamino Stella.On the morning of March 24, Cardinal Beniamino Stella presided over a concelebrated Eucharist in the chapel of the Center for Higher Studies on the occasion of the feast of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum.
Father Jesús Villagrasa, LC, rector of the Athenaeum, in welcoming the Cardinal on behalf of the entire academic community, thanked the also Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy for the Ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis. “This document provides us with clear guidelines that we will implement throughout the academic year,” commented Father Villagrasa.
“It will be our responsibility, as a university, to foster training capable of uniting candidates for the priesthood and laypeople in a balanced way in their human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral dimensions, through a gradual, communal, and personalized pedagogical path,” added Father Villagrasa.
The Cardinal Beniamino Stella, for his part, emphasized in the homily how God calls, primarily, through one’s own life, through what one is, through the charisms and talents He has given us. Because God has also taken the initiative in calling each one.
“We can say that when man responds to God’s call, something new happens in the world, something changes in reality. Every ‘yes’ given to God modifies the world in some way; that is why each person’s life is unique and beautiful; no one can respond for us, no one can answer for us to the call we receive personally, nor can they compensate for our lack of response. What God asks of each person is personal and untransferable,” commented Cardinal Beniamino.
He concluded by saying: “Each of you is a universe of relationships, listening, hope, received mercy; each one builds a little piece of the Kingdom of God in the lives of the people they interact with.”
