On Saturday, September 22, the School de Medicina held an act of homage to its chaplain for more than 30 years. Or, as he prefers to call it, an act of farewell: "Because, as life goes by, I am more and more aware of the gifts and not of the merits," he says. The merits are honored but the gifts only deserve thanks. And during these years everything has been gifts, not things that I have worked for.

Juan Ramón García-Morato studied Medicine at the Complutense University and practiced in Madrid, Galicia and Rome. There he decided to combine outpatient surgeries in a private enquiry while he finished his programs of study of Theology "for what could happen in any of the cases". He made his debut at the University as chaplain of the School of Philosophy and Letters, where he recalls with humor his nerves prior to the first class: "A wise professor saw my worried face, approached me and gave me three pieces of advice: 'Your students are not your enemies, so interpret the faces they make at you in the most favorable way possible. Besides, no matter how much they know, you know more than what you are going to tell them; and if the classroom is very long, don't even worry about the first half, always look at the second half, which is where they are going to give you a hard time'".

His next assignment was to School Communication: "I went for good but I only lasted a year. Even so, it was very useful for me because living every day with people who defend transparency financial aid to learn how to communicate better with others. I can say that today I would not be the same without that year". Precisely this eagerness for freedom is what Alejandra Alonso, a former student of Medicine (MED'09) emphasized: "He is a person who has always tried to listen but without judging. I have the feeling that he has never tried to convince us of anything, but has only sought to get to know us better and better. In the end, that is the true university spirit: to dialogue freely with those who think differently. And I think we students have been able to do this with him.

If there is one place where Juan Ramón García-Morato has spent almost half his life, it is School of Medicine. He assures us that he has always gotten along well with his colleagues at any of the Schools sites he has visited, although being one of them has been slightly easier here: "I am also a doctor and, therefore, a member of the profession," he recalls with a chuckle. Taking stock, he estimates that some 11,000 students have passed through his classrooms and confesses that he would have liked to say goodbye to all of them personally. He calls them his "Library Services", because "each one is a unique specimen" that only he has been able to read "and that no one else has read!

And that is how they perceive him. Pablo Pita, student , a fifth-year medical student, highlighted his "enormous ability to listen, trying to put himself in the other person's shoes" during the event. "For us, this way of approaching the person in front of him reflected one of the most important values of this profession: the delicacy in the attention to the patient. For this reason, many of his students consider Don Juan Ramón not only a teacher or a priest, but also a friend," he says.

Given this relationship, it is not surprising that about ten years ago Don Juan Ramón realized that he got along better with students than with his parents. "Ninety percent of my interlocutors have always been between 18 and 25 years old and I have never spared any time with them, so the best gift the University could have given me is that my operating system was automatically updated year after year and I didn't have to catch up because I was already up to date. I think that's what I'm going to miss the most and what I'll try to continue in some way in Madrid."

On Saturday, September 29, he took office as President of the Basilica of St. Michael in the capital. He is comforted to know that there are many alumni who know him and with whom he hopes to maintain a frequent attention : "For now, in the days I have been there, they have come to see me average three or four a day". And this has been an atypical start to the school year for him, away from the classrooms and the comings and goings of students, and engrossed in unpacking boxes during. "By the time I realized it, it was already September 10. It was only when I looked at aclic and saw 'course opening' that I was aware that everything was still running its course. And all the while, I was dealing with such a tsunami that the change of life passed me by in the sweetest way."