More than 1,700 people participated in the thanksgiving Mass for the 70th anniversary of the University of Navarra on the 8th. The meeting, which took place on the esplanade in front of the Ismael Sánchez Bella building, was presided over by Vice Chancellor Ignacio Barrera.

"Seventy years ago, with the blessing and encouragement of St. Josemaría Escrivá, Don Ismael (Sánchez Bella) arrived in Pamplona. They lent him a few thousand pesetas and some classrooms. He and those who joined the adventure weeks later put their work, magnanimity and trust in God. Also, the eagerness to serve their fellow men, to seek the truth and to reach the knowledge of man, the world and God", he pointed out in the homily.

Celebrating the 70th anniversary against this backdrop, he continued, is very demanding. "In 2022 we have found ourselves with much done and with the call to not stop so that, in the words of our Founder, 'the University will be a focus, ever more alive, of civic freedom, of intellectual preparation, of professional emulation, and a stimulus for the teaching university.'"

The University of Navarra, stressed Vice Chancellor, is"a place of meeting, of dialogue, of learning and respect; a place where we can come to know the truth, the good and the beautiful, to distinguish the just from the unjust; and we try to do so in the light of the Gospel, because that is where we have our model".

Ignacio Barrera, Vice Chancellor , recalled the Mass of October 8, 1967, in which St. Josemaría Escrivá gave the homily Passionately Loving the World. "This was the message that our Founder stressed with a 'repeated hammering' throughout his life and, more concretely, on an October 8, 55 years ago, here, at the campus of the University of Navarre, in a campus still very different from the one we see and enjoy today."

In fact, at the 70th anniversary mass the banners, as well as the frontal and cross of the altar, the candelabra, and the image of the Virgin, were the same as those of 1967.

"We now reiterate our desire to always follow in the footsteps of St. Josemaría. Generosity and magnanimity are some of the hallmarks of our identity. We see them alive in the first ones who arrived, in so many professors, students and other workers who preceded us-many are celebrating this anniversary with us from heaven-and in those who today work in all the university's campus ," he said.

Founder's Week

The 70th anniversary Mass was part of the second edition of Founder's Week, which goal aims to bring the figure of the founder of the academic center to the public. The week's events began with a colloquium on the personality of St. Josemaría as a university student at position by historians Pablo Pérez and Ana Escauriaza, moderated by journalist Teo Peñarroja. Also, a meeting of the Pilgrim Mother of Torreciudad with the Mother of Fair Love was held at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fair Love of Campus.