Pope Promotes Gospel Witness in Universities

"Promote a growing and generous evangelical witness within universities."

BUCHAREST, Romania (Zenit) - Benedict XVI says he hopes universities can be the home of an ever increasing witness to the Gospel.The Pope expressed this wish in a note sent to a European meeting on pastoral ministry in universities, sponsored by the Council of European Bishops' Conferences. The three-day meeting concluded Sunday in Bucharest.

In his message, the Holy Father expressed his desire that the meeting "promote an evermore living contemplation of Christ, Word of the Father, in such a way as to awaken a growing and generous evangelical witness within universities."

Thirty-one bishops' conferences were represented at the meeting, which included discussion on such things as the upcoming 7th European Day for Universities and a meeting of university students scheduled for next summer at Castel Gandolfo.

"This [participation] obviously favors the desire to network because today it is a matter of serving a university world that is becoming more and more mobile," Monsignor Lorenzo Leuzzi, an official of the bishops' council, said. "Sharing and cooperation between different university chaplaincies thus becomes ever more important for the lives of students."

During the meeting, which for the first time also welcomed representatives of different ecclesial movements and associations connected to university pastoral ministry, the situations of the different universities were presented, with particular attention to that of Romania, the site of the meeting.