On Friday, November 5, at 8:00 a.m., Jutta Burggraf, professor of the department of Dogmatics at the School of Theology of the University of Navarra, passed away. She passed away in the Clinic, after struggling, with courage and serene trust in God, with severe leukemia that was detected while she was chairing, in April, the Theology Symposium of this year 2010. The Symposium, dedicated to topic of Conversion, brought together high-level theologians and first-person witnesses of the conversion under study. Already suffering from the illness that was taking away her strength and energy, we shared with her those conference and vibrated with the stories of Mariqui Dueñas, Paola Binetti and Etsuro Sotoo, the Japanese sculptor of the Holy Family, without perceiving in Jutta the symptoms of the illness. On the contrary, as was usual with her, we always found her open smile, her welcome to any doubt or suggestion, her generous sharing of the reflections that the conference raised. Thank you, Jutta, for that last effort that you gave us, serene continuity of what was your life of generous submission to those around you!

A theologian, tireless seeker of the Truth and passionate follower of the Good, her work and her life were marked by freedom. She searched, opted and put all her energies into the goal she had set herself. This free choice gave her such ease in achieving it that it seemed to be effortless. This is how he taught his classes. Thus he wrote his books, always suggestive and novel, in which attitudes were learned and virtues were forged in the attentive reader.

Friend of her friends, and with a huge heart open to the world, for Jutta people came first. This, which may be a cliché, was her daily life. This can be affirmed by the entire university community of School of Theology. Colleagues, students, each one of the people who work in the services that make the life of the School possible: with everyone Jutta shared interests, worries, pains and joys. Nothing and no one was indifferent to her. She was interested in everyone. She had a special weakness for the weakest and most needy. The door of his office was open to everyone. However, if anyone had priority, it was her students: when someone called, Jutta would look at the colleague in front of her and let him know that he had to make way for someone who had just arrived at School and asked for financial aid, or PhD student who needed guidance.

Jutta, as I have said, loved freedom and she herself was a truly free person and, by the same token, a good one. I feel like capitalizing this adjective: I don't, but let the reader read it as he or she will. That is why I am not surprised that this German theologian has left us the day before a theologian and German Pope makes the trip to Spain: it is like a service of preparing the way. That's how I see it.

In a mass celebrated at the wake of the clinic before her mortal remains, the priest told us that he lives in an international seminar where many were Jutta's students. When they learned of the seriousness of her death on the 4th at the last minute, status, they held a candle to the Blessed Sacrament during the night, as it was the eve of First Friday, this time praying for Jutta. On the day of her death, she surely "returned" the gesture: one of the students was coming on his bicycle to the School of Theology; he was hit by a car and was thrown about 10 meters in the air. Thank you also, Jutta, for this gesture to your dear students!