The Chancellor of the University is the Opus Dei prelate, Fernando Ocáriz.
From agreement with the Statutes of the University, and among other attributions, he appoints the President and confirms the appointments of the main academic authorities. In his responsibility as Chancellor he is assisted by the directors of Opus Dei who make up the Chancellery. In particular, the Vice Chancellor, who is the regional vicar of the Work in Spain, currently Ignacio Barrera.
The University of Navarra must be a beacon which, through research into truth, illuminates the world; a lifeblood which, through coexistence and friendship, nourishes the souls of the young people who pass through its campus year after year. In this lies a source of vitality, capable of bringing refund enthusiasm to a tired world.
Fernando Ocáriz
CHANCELLOR
The current Chancellor of the University was born in Paris on 27 October 1944. He is graduate in Physical Sciences from the University of Barcelona (1966) and in Theology from the Pontifical Lateran University (1969). He obtained his doctorate in Theology in 1971 at the University of Navarre. That same year he was ordained priest. In his first years as a priest he devoted himself especially to youth and university pastoral work.
He has been consultant of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 1986 and of two other bodies of the Roman Curia: Congregation for the Clergy (2003) and Pontifical committee for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation (2011). In 1989 he joined the Pontifical Theological Academy. In the 1980s, he was one of the professors who initiated the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome), where he was Full Professor (now emeritus) of Fundamental Theology.
His theological publications include books on Christology, such as The mystery of Jesus Christ: a Christology and Soteriology textbook; Sons of God in Christ. An Introduction to a Theology of Supernatural Participation. Other volumes deal with theological and philosophical topics such as Loving with Works: God and Man; Nature, Grace and Glory, with a preface by Cardinal Ratzinger. In 2013 an interview book by Rafael Serrano was published under the title Sobre Dios, la Iglesia y el mundo (On God, the Church and the World). Among his works are two philosophy studies: Marxism: Theory and Practice of a Revolution; Voltaire: A Treatise on Toleration. He is also co-author of numerous monographs, and author of numerous theological and philosophical articles.
Since 1994 he has been vicar general of Opus Dei and in 2014 he was appointed auxiliary vicar of the prelature. For the past 22 years he has accompanied the previous prelate, Bishop Javier Echevarría, on his pastoral visits to more than 70 nations. In the 1960s, as a theology student, he lived in Rome with Saint Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei.