After more than forty years of service to the School of Theology at the University of Navarra, to which he continued to lend his financial aid after his retirement, the Lord wanted to call to his presence Professor Lucas Francisco Mateo Seco, our beloved "don Lucas", or "don Francisco", or "don Paco Lucas", or other variants of his names by which he was called and which he accepted with good humor.

In 1992, on the occasion of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the School, Professor Mateo Seco, the youngest of the professors who had come to Pamplona in 1967 to start the School, wondered: "How were the beginnings? Fun, hard work, hopeful. We were sure that God would not let us out of his hand. And the illusion of serving the Church not only with good will, but also with a job well done. That was what really mattered.

Don Lucas moved to Pamplona with the hope of starting the project of which St. Josemaría Escrivá dreamed. The history of Don Lucas is inseparable from the history of School, to which he dedicated himself body and soul, moved by a great love for the Church and the priesthood. Because the passion of his life was his priesthood and the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross to which he belonged, and the solid spiritual and intellectual training of priests.

Since shortly after his ordination as a professor and formator at seminar in Seville and during his time as a professor at School, until the last days of his life, Don Francisco never lost the illusion of forging good Christians and good theologians. And he did so by putting his privileged report , his lucid mind, his vitality, his common sense, his untiring capacity for work, his energy, his gifts of government and his many other qualities at the service of the School and of the people - teachers, students and staff not professor- who worked and studied there.

Those of us who have had the good fortune to know him have witnessed his eagerness to do things well and his enthusiasm for dreaming big things. He did it by going ahead. His prestige at national and international level as a speculative theologian in the area of Trinitarian theology, Christology and Mariology, and as a recognized expert in Gregory of Nyssa attests that to the good will and trust in God he knew how to add the work well done.

And all this with great discretion and joy. If Don Lucas considered the beginnings of School "fun" it is because he never lost his good humor. He, with his often feigned Andalusian exaggeration, conveyed optimism and joy, and taught us to take the iron out of the dramatic or difficult to continue looking forward with hope. It is not strange that with his look and his smile he became so loved by all those who treated him because of his academic work or his intense pastoral work, which he never stopped.

Don Francisco lived with passion the adventure of theology, of School, of the University, of everything he undertook. And he was also a faithful man. Faithful to his vocation, to the Church, to the University. Until a few days before his death he was available in his room at the Clinic to help with his good work and his great experience to whoever needed it. During the months in which he moved to the Residential Center, he never ceased to receive anyone seeking guidance. His health limitations did not diminish his dedication to give advice on a wide variety of subjects to the young and not so young teachers who visited him. He never ceased to encourage them to go further than he did, to work with professionalism and enthusiasm, and to pass on to them his love for theology and School , which he had seen in St. Josemaría.

When the University of Navarra awarded him the gold medal for services rendered, it did nothing more than try to give modest thanks for what Don Lucas had done for it. All of us who work at School would have liked to show him then and now our debt of gratitude and also thank him with that medal for so many, many other things. Therefore, on behalf of all of us, Don Francisco, thank you very much indeed. Continue to help us from heaven.