The Chair Jean Monnet de la School of Law participates in a meeting Vatican academic and private audience with Pope Leo XIV

The Augustinian Patristic Institute (Vatican City) recently hosted the first academic meeting of the international project promoted by Villanova University (USA) and the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human development . The quotation, which is part of a three-year program in which the Chair Jean Monnet, directed by the professor of the School of Law, Maria Teresa Gil Bazo, participates, brought together representatives of Catholic universities committed to research, teaching and service in the field of migration and refugee issues. 

The meeting was born out of Pope Francis' invitation to the Catholic academic community to work together in the search for solutions to the challenges of human mobility . During the conference, participants discussed the elaboration of action plans based on four fundamental pillars: teaching, research, service and accompaniment.

As part of the program, the participants were received in private audience by Pope Leo XIV. In his address, the Holy Father encouraged participants to promote a "culture of reconciliation" that places the dignity of every human person at the center of social and political solutions, urging them to remember that "migrants and refugees can be privileged witnesses of hope through their trust in God". "We must find concrete ways to promote gestures and policies of reconciliation, especially where deep wounds from protracted conflicts persist," the Pontiff said. 

The meeting took place framework of the celebration of the Jubilee of Migrants and the Missionary World, in which the Holy Father invited the whole Church to "remain in order to proclaim Christ through welcome, compassion and solidarity". In his homily, Leo XIV recalled that "those boats that hope to see a safe harbor cannot and must not encounter the coldness of indifference or the stigma of discrimination".

"This international initiative strengthens the partnership between Catholic universities to face, from research, teaching and social commitment, the challenges of global migration, and seeks to foster a culture of meeting and hope, in line with the call of Pope Leo XIV to promote reconciliation and fraternal solidarity," explains Professor Maria Teresa Gil Bazo.

The Chair Jean Monnet in European programs of study directed by Professor Gil Bazo seeks to promote teaching and research on the challenges faced by the EU and its Member States in relation to asylum and migration issues.