From the Urban College to the Pontifical Urbaniana University

375 years of history 

Fr. Ambrogio Spreafico
Rector of the Pontifical Urbaniana University

The Pontifical Urbaniana University is celebrating the 375^th anniversary of its foundation. In fact it was in early 1627 that Pope Urban VIII established the Collegium Urbanum in the Propaganda Fide building near the Spanish Steps. Its task was to form in the missionary spirit those who would go to «heathen lands» to announce the Gospel, and also to give them a suitable philosophical and theological formation. Also what would later become the La Sapienza University was a College, as was the Roman College, which was to become the Gregorian University. And this was all in the year 1627. 

Some time previously the Spanish priest Gian Battista Vives had gathered a group of priests who would prepare to go to heathen lands to announce the only Gospel of Jesus Christ. Pope Urban VIII recognised that College as a Church institution and with the Bull Immortalis Dei Filius erected it as the Urban College placing it under the protection of the Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul. The three present colleges for seminarians and priests dependent on the Dicastery, that is, the Urban College and the Colleges of St Peter and St Paul, originate from this College. From the year of its foundation (with confirmation in 1641), the College was granted the privilege and right to confer the title of Doctor, reserved to the Studium Urbis, the present La Sapienza University of Rome. 

This means that from the beginning this institution has had a precise academic function equivalent to what would later be covered by universities, even though it was only 40 years ago that Blessed John XXIII raised it to the status of University. From 28^th to 30^th November 2002 a theological historical convention was held at the University to re-examine the most important moments of these historical years. Indeed we have a duty to examine the rich history of these 375 years. In fact history does not belong to us, and we are not its only creators. 

Others before us believed, toiled and often built it with sacrifice. We can remember only a few of those who passed through this College and whom the Church has recognised as saints, for example the martyr Oliver Plunkett, professor at the College from 1657 to 1669, or Blessed Card. Henry Newmann, who instead was a student at the College. Furthermore how many of those who have passed through the Urban College and the Urbaniana University are to be counted among the witnesses to the faith whom John Paul II wished to remember during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2002. They are all part of what we like to call the Urbaniana Family, which has its origins in the ancient missionary mandate Jesus addressed to the Apostles, to announce the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and which has never ceased to raise in the Church men and women who would do this in their own special way. 

The Urban College was part of that renewed missionary effort that characterised the first part of the 17^th century, when the Church had become aware of the dangers that stemmed from too close a connection with colonial powers through the institution of patronage, which at times could endanger the very freedom of the gospel proclamation. As we see from the memoirs of Francesco Ingoli, the first Secretary of the new Propaganda Fide Dicastery, the spirit that had to animate the College was closely linked to the spirit of the Propaganda Congregation. 

Ten years later, beside the main College two other annexes were created, which received students from various nations: two Georgians, two Persians, two Nestorians, two Jacobins, two Melchites, two Copts, seven Abyssinians and six Brahmins from India. It is the symbolic sign of that internationality and inter-rituality that has characterised institutions affiliated to the College from the very beginning. In this sense the College with its annexes was distinguished by its very nature from the other national colleges that existed at that time in Rome. 

The papal Bull says this when it calls the College «unum apostolicum» (Immortalis Dei Filius 1), namely, not characterised by the nationality of its students and furthermore directly dependent on the Pope. These brief remarks serve to show some of the College’s original characteristics, which describe the University today too, and which I would like to summarise as follows: missionary dimension, universality, concern for peoples’ cultures, inculturation of the faith. One of the ways of inculturation passes, as always, through a Christianity that takes root through men and women coming from countries where the Gospel is announced. 

I have spoken of the missionary dimension. I will not dwell for long on this aspect. We are all aware of it. It is the prime characteristic of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, the Catholic Church’s only missionary University. This means above all sharing a spirit - re-proposed forcefully by Redemptoris Missio - that should inspire our research, study and teaching. Our University has a dimension that places it immediately in the variegated fabric of cultures and peoples. As an academic institution, while on the one hand it has the task of investigating thoroughly the mysteries of faith, on the other it feels the necessity and urgent need to join them wisely to different historical and cultural realities without distorting their meaning and foundation. 

Following the biblical model it is conscious that the Word of God is a fruitful synthesis of a gift of God which from time to time assumes the characteristics of human language in a wonderful intermingling. This is why from its very beginnings the Urbaniana has seen the missionary yearning not as contraposition, but as the proclamation of a Gospel that approaches man in his diversity and in his thirst for truth. In a word, the missionary paradigm becomes a priority choice at the Urbaniana, and a way of research and dialogue. 

This missionary dimension becomes universality. Despite the fact that we are living in a globalised world, cultural divisions and contrasts between individuals, communities, ethnic groups and peoples seem to be increasing and having an adverse effect on human co-existence. 

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of ideologies had led us to imagine a world without conflicts. But this is not what has happened. Conflicts have increased, terrorism has become a constant threat, the most dangerous weapons are within the reach of everyone. It is precisely for this reason that the universality one breathes at the Urbaniana, and what is meant both by the presence of students from many nations and by the 90 Affiliate Institutes found in 40 of the world’s nations, becomes a programme of life and study. We need to affirm the universal spirit of the Catholic Church which, without minglings or syncretisms, makes it possible to work to overcome conflicts, to promote co-existence between many different people, to build the unity of the human family, and takes us towards the full realisation of the kingdom of God. Universality does not weaken the force of faith in the saving singularity of Jesus Christ; rather it strengthens it in its intrinsic need for communication.

 At the same time universality does not deny the identity of the individual, who is accepted in his riches and inserted in a new dimension which becomes a new culture, capable of transforming the human being. For this reason over the years the Urbaniana has shown itself to be attentive to the world’s challenges, without losing its relationship with the Church’s tradition. One example among many: Cornelio Fabro started the «Institute for the Study of Atheism», which with time became the «Institute for the Study of non-belief, of religions and cultures»

It is not simply a question of adapting to modernity, but of accepting a challenge that requires reflection. Looking to the future perhaps we can and should think of a Faculty for the study of Religions and cultures, which would propose a serious reflection on the salvific unicity of Jesus Christ, in whose horizon the great religions can express their richness and affirm their salvific value. John Paul II entrusted this task to us in a very special way in the audience he granted us for our 375^th anniversary.

Contrary to what might be thought, missionary outreach is not in any way cultural conservatism. Quite the reverse. It is the continuation of a mission entrusted by the Father to Jesus Christ, handed down to the Apostles and continued over the centuries. It has become an essential element of the Church and has always been for Christians a way of living the faith in the world, amidst its problems and conquests, accepting that God’s kenosis fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth should continue to be realised in history.

Certainly today the University appears with a richness and complexity that are an obvious sign of its progress over the years. Four Faculties (Philosophy, Theology, Canon Law, Missiology), several Institutes and research Centres, special Courses try to unite its rich history with the new necessities of the modern world. The radical reorganisation of the Faculty of Missiology is the most obvious sign of the Urbaniana’s renewed attention to missiological themes, to inculturation, to dialogue with the great religions. The stabilisation of numerous professors, which has occurred in recent years, now makes it possible to set out decisively on the road of research and more robust and more demanding theological reflection. Every Faculty is involved in this effort. Philosophy with particular attention..., Theology which has introduced the course of the Theology of mission into the institutional course and which is trying to give a missionary imprint to all its teaching and research, above all in specialisations, Law with its resumption of a reflection on missionary Law, the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences with a typically missionary imprint and for this reason incorporated in the Faculty of Missiology.

Consequently today the Urbaniana University looks to the future with hope, conscious of the task that has been entrusted to her and which today, after 375 years, is given to her again as a mandate for study and life in the modern world. Let us make our own the programme John Paul II entrusted to the whole Church after the Jubilee of the year 2000: start afresh in order to place Jesus Christ at the centre of our life and study at the Urbaniana (NMI 29) and in order to set out on the «great adventure of proclaiming the Gospel» (NMI 58).

At the inauguration of the Academic Year I said, «A jubilee cannot leave either us or the University the same». It is difficult to say what this glorious reality will become, but I cherish a hope that it may serve the Church and the world with generosity and intelligence, sinking its roots into the Church’s rich heritage, and at the same time attentive to the challenges of the world’s complexity, «always prepared to make a defence to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you», as the first letter of Peter (3:15) says.