On the 7th October 2025, the traditional inauguration ceremony of the Academic Year 2025-2026 of the Pontifical University Antonianum (PUA) took place in Rome.
The event opened with the Eucharistic celebration in the Basilica of St. Anthony Lateran presided over by Br. Massimo Fusarelli, Minister General of the OFM and Grand Chancellor of the PUA. On the day on which the Church commemorates Our Lady of the Rosary, Br. Massimo recalled how the university world must be a "laboratory of the future", in which we must try to "intercept, interpret and deepen the signs of the times to enter into dialogue with today's currents of thought". All this is done through listening, said the Grand Chancellor, like the inhabitants of Nineveh who listened to Jonah and were converted: ascetic study, incessant search for truth, analysis of the present time with Mary's gaze: "It is necessary to sit like her at the feet of the Master, in contemplative listening. Only from this deep listening will authentic, non-ideological thoughts and gestures of peace be born."
In this regard, Br. Massimo emphasized how St. Anthony of Padua taught that true peace begins with a reconciled heart. For this reason, "the Franciscan university is called to this prophecy: not only to study peace, but to live it. Begin with reconciliation with ourselves, with the truth, with others. To train not only competent professionals, but witnesses of fraternity, builders of bridges. [We must accept to] die to our laziness and fears, to be reborn to a knowledge that serves life, that embraces humanity, that builds peace."
The ceremony, moderated by Br. Efrén Parmenio Ortiz, Secretary General of the PUA, continued at the Antonianum Auditorium, where Prof. Agustín Hernández Vidales OFM, Rector Magnificus of the PUA, welcomed those present and presented the Report on the 2024-2025 academic year.
This was followed by Prof. Fabrizio Lobasso, Central Director for Economic Internationalization at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Italian Republic, with the inaugural address "Francis and the Art of Encounter: Towards an Intercultural Humanism.
At the end, Br. Massimo Fusarelli gave his traditional speech entitled The PUA construction site of hope in the change of era, in which he focused on how to research and assume "new paradigms, new keys of interpretation, new forms of wisdom" in the light of the "Franciscan inspiration" that characterizes the PUA.
Starting from the Franciscan theology of the Incarnation, for example, we know that "we are not in a world abandoned by God, but in a creation that already bears within itself the signs of his plan of love", said the Minister General, who recalled, according to the words of St. Bonaventure, that conformity to Christ is a path of transformation in love, not just an external imitation.
The Grand Chancellor then illustrated the educational richness offered by the University, focusing in particular on two courses: the Licentiate in Philosophy with specialization in Integral Ecology, which is proposed as a "systemic response to contemporary crises", and the highly specialized one in Ethics and Artificial Intelligence, which represents "a pioneering frontier of digital evangelization".
Br. Massimo then focused on the Franciscan formation that today "must be incarnated in real life and inserted among the people", on the need to revitalize the reciprocal belonging between the University and the Franciscan Order/Family, on the importance of the Franciscan vision of fraternity as a formative method, on the intercultural network that the PUA has woven over time with the affiliated OFM study centres, on the invitation to encourage and qualify doctoral courses in faculties.
"Dear friends," concluded the Minister General, "we begin this new academic year with the awareness that the Spirit of the Lord calls us to be his collaborators in the great work of transfiguration of the world. But also with the awareness that this requires a concrete conversion from us: the courage to change where necessary, the audacity to innovate without betraying, the determination to build together a sustainable future for our institution".
Read the full text of the Minister General's homily
Read the full text of the Minister General's speech
Photo: Archivio OFM
