JESUITS COMPLETE MERGER OF THREE PONTIFICAL UNIVERSITIES INTO SINGLE ENTITY

From the Gregorian University website: New Configuration of the Pontifical Gregorian University – Pontifical Gregorian University (unigre.it)

The Gregorian University, known locally simply as “the Greg,” is one of the most celebrated educational institutions in the Eternal City, receiving students, seminarians, future missionaries, and prelates from around the world. It will be interesting to follow the changes in several of the institutions just merged into the Greg. However, as we read, “the Holy Father ordered that the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute be joined to the Gregorian University while still retaining their own names and missions.”

I have interviewed Fr. Mark Lewis (no relation) several times for “Vatican Insider,” and the last time we spoke he already pointed to this change

JESUITS COMPLETE MERGER OF THREE PONTIFICAL UNIVERSITIES INTO SINGLE ENTITY

Welcoming Pope Francis’ indications to join three Jesuit-run Pontifical Universities into a single entity, the Pontifical Gregorian University explains the new configuration of the University with the new Statutes entering into force on 19 May 2024.

By Vatican News

At Pope Francis’ request, the Society of Jesus has merged three Jesuit-run Pontifical Universities in Rome into a single juridical entity.

On March 15, 2024, Fr. Mark Lewis S.J., Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, received a decree from Fr. Arturo Sosa S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus and Vice Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Gregorian University, which states that the new General Statutes of the University, which permanently incorporate the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute.

According to a press release from the Gregorian, this will come into effect on 19 May 2024, Pentecost Sunday.

The main entrance to the university on Pza. della Pilotta –

The three institutions share a common bond, as they were all entrusted to the Society of Jesus by the Pope.

The three structures

The Gregorian, established in 1551 by St. Ignatius of Loyola, served as the academic hub known as the ‘Roman College’ for centuries. Whereas the Pontifical Biblical Institute, founded in 1909, serves as a center for advanced studies of sacred Scripture. Meanwhile, the Pontifical Oriental Institute, established in 1917, is focused on higher studies in the ecclesiastical sciences and the canon law of the Eastern Churches.

Pope Francis’ indications

The Statutes were created following the Chirograph signed by Pope Francis on December 17, 2019.

In this letter, the Holy Father ordered that the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute be joined to the Gregorian University while still retaining their own names and missions.

This was done in such a way that they are now part of “the same juridical person, as academic units of the University.”

The request aims to improve the ability of the two Pontifical Institutes to carry out their specific missions in the present context.

Pope Francis also expressed his desire for the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches to continue “supporting and promoting the mission of the Pontifical Oriental Institute,” with the prefect of that Dicastery assuming the function of Patron for the Institute.

Finally, the Holy Father delegated the power to prepare new statutes for the Pontifical Gregorian University, incorporating the two pontifical institutes, to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus and the institutions involved.

The Dicastery for Culture and Education ratified and approved the new statutes on February 11, 2024.

Governance of the Gregorian

The Pontifical Gregorian University is governed by a single Rector, who is assisted by his Council.

The Council includes the three Presidents who share the responsibility for managing the entire University, and who supervise and promote the fulfillment of the missions of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, the Pontifical Oriental Institute, and the Collegium Maximum (the latter body represents the faculties and institutes that have been erected at the Gregorian to date).

 

The University’s Administrative Director and a sixth member appointed by the Vice Grand Chancellor are also part of the Council.

On May 19, 2024, the following individuals will take office for a three-year term: Fr. Giuseppe Di Luccio S.J. as President of the Collegium Maximum, Fr. Peter Dubovský S.J. as President of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Fr. Sunny Thomas Kokkaravakyil S.J. as President of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Fr. David E. Nazar S.J. as Administrative Director of the University, and Mr. Luigi Allena as the sixth member of the Rector’s Council.

 

VATICAN INSIDER: A VISIT TO ROME’S PONTIFICAL ORIENTAL INSTITUTE (PART II)

VATICAN INSIDER: A VISIT TO ROME’S PONTIFICAL ORIENTAL INSTITUTE (PART II)

This week in the interview segment of Vatican Insider, join me and my special guest Fr. David Nazar, rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome for Part II of our conversation. A Canadian born Jesuit from a family of Ukrainian origin, his multi-lingual, multi-cultural background, after years as a superior of Jesuits in Ukraine and former Provincial of the Jesuits in the English Canada Province, eventually led him to Rome.

You’ll learn all about the Institute – known in Rome as the Orientale – the graduate courses and degrees it offers, where the students come from, its celebrated library and its many unique aspects, including the fact it hosts the only Catholic faculty of Oriental Canon Law in the world. One truly fascinating aspect is how many of the students, especially women, coming from war-torn areas of the world to study their religious heritage, intend their studies to help them rebuild their countries!

The library is breathtaking in its history and scope. The oldest original volume in the library dates to the 14th century. There are copies of older manuscripts, but they are photocopies.

Fr. David offers some truly inspiring and wonderful stories. Last week we learned how he was behind the Orientale being the only higher educational institution in the Eternal City to be ready for virtual learning via online courses when Covid struck!

Last week I featured photos of the premises of the Orientale and this week I accompany you to the stunning chapel of this unique Institute:

IN THE UNITED STATES, you can listen to Vatican Insider (VI) on a Catholic radio station near you (stations listed at www.ewtn.com) or on channel 130 Sirius-XM satellite radio, or on http://www.ewtn.com. OUTSIDE THE U.S., you can listen to EWTN radio on our website home page by clicking on the right side where you see “LISTEN TO EWTN.” VI airs at 5am and 9pm ET on Saturdays and 6am ET on Sundays. On the GB-IE feed (which is on SKY in the UK and Ireland), VI airs at 5:30am, 12 noon and 10pm CET on Sundays. Both of these feeds are also available on the EWTN app and on www.ewtnradio.net ALWAYS CHECK YOUR OWN TIME ZONE! For VI archives: go to https://www.ewtn.com/radio/audio-archive and write the name of the guest for whom you are searching in the SEARCH box. Below that, will appear “Vatican Insider” – click on that and the link to that particular episode will appear.

 

VATICAN INSIDER: A CONVERSATION WITH FR. DAVID NAZAR, RECTOR, PONTIFICAL ORIENTAL INSTITUTE – POPE TO INSTALL CATECHISTS , LECTORS AT MASS ON SUNDAY OF THE WORD OF GOD

VATICAN INSIDER: A CONVERSATION WITH FR. DAVID NAZAR, RECTOR, PONTIFICAL ORIENTAL INSTITUTE

This week in the interview segment of Vatican Insider, my special guest is Fr. David Nazar, rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. A Canadian born Jesuit from a family of Ukrainian origin, his multi-lingual, multi-cultural background, after years as a superior of Jesuits in Ukraine and former Provincial of the Jesuits in the English Canada Province, eventually led him to Rome.

You will learn all about the Institute – known here as the Orientale – the graduate courses and degrees it offers, where the students come from, its celebrated library and its many unique aspects, including the fact it hosts the only Catholic faculty of Oriental Canon Law in the world. One truly fascinating aspect is how many of the students, especially women, coming from war-torn areas of the world to study their religious heritage, intend their studies to help them rebuild their countries!

The library is breath-taking in its history and scope. The oldest original volume in the library dates to the 14th century. There are copies of older manuscripts, but they are photocopies.

Fr. David offers some truly inspiring and wonderful stories, including how (and why) the Orientale was probably the only educational institution in the Eternal City to be totally ready for online courses when Covid struck!

Following are some photos I took of the premises after our conversation. Next week, when I air Part II of our talk, I’ll feature photos of the stunning chapel at the Orientale!

These crosses are all from Ethiopia, a collection gifted to the Orientale:

This small handmade Armenian tapestry is stunning: There are 1500 stitches in one square inch! It took one year to make! It looked to be about 16 or 18 inches by 24 (I did not measure).

The classrooms are absolutely avant-garde, from colors chosen for the health-friendly paint (colors that keep people alert and attentive) to the acoustics and sound systems to the air filters that ensure clean, germ-free air circulation:

Fr. Nazar explains this painting done by an American artist that is in the institute’s library:

More photos of the premises – the library, garden courtyard, etc.

IN THE UNITED STATES, you can listen to Vatican Insider (VI) on a Catholic radio station near you (stations listed at www.ewtn.com) or on channel 130 Sirius-XM satellite radio, or on http://www.ewtn.com. OUTSIDE THE U.S., you can listen to EWTN radio on our website home page by clicking on the right side where you see “LISTEN TO EWTN.” VI airs at 5am and 9pm ET on Saturdays and 6am ET on Sundays. On the GB-IE feed (which is on SKY in the UK and Ireland), VI airs at 5:30am, 12 noon and 10pm CET on Sundays. Both of these feeds are also available on the EWTN app and on www.ewtnradio.net ALWAYS CHECK YOUR OWN TIME ZONE! For VI archives: go to https://www.ewtn.com/radio/audio-archive and write the name of the guest for whom you are searching in the SEARCH box. Below that, will appear “Vatican Insider” – click on that and the link to that particular episode will appear.

POPE TO INSTALL CATECHISTS , LECTORS AT MASS ON SUNDAY OF THE WORD OF GOD

Something to look forward to this coming Sunday, Sunday of the Word of God, a special day instituted by Pope Francis on September 30, 2019 in his Apostolic Letter, Motu proprio “Aperuit illis.” The Pope wrote that “the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time is to be devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the Word of God.”

At his celebration of Mass for the Sunday of the Word of God on January 23, Pope Francis will formally install new catechists and lectors — ministries open to women. Significantly, September30 is the Feast of Saint Jerome, the man who translated most of the Bible into Latin, and who famously said: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” EWTN will air the papal Mass.

 

VATICAN INSIDER: FR. MATT BERRIOS AND THE PONTIFICAL ORIENTAL INSTITUTE

A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That….

English weekly edition of L’Osservatore Romano: ING_2021_025_1806.pdf (osservatoreromano.va)

The following was in my inbox today – the daily PAUSE AND PRAY reflection I get from Franciscan media. I was especially struck by ACT!

REFLECT

Gratitude is a spiritual practice that changes our littleness into abundance. It changes how we see our lives, situations, and experiences. We can always find something to be grateful for, even when life is hard or less than ideal.

PRAY

Dear Jesus,
take all that is in me
and pour it out in a sacrifice of gratitude.
Teach me that gratitude is a way
to always come close to and experience your presence.
Practicing gratitude is an opportunity
to name all the ways you love and bless me in my life. Amen.

ACT

Set a timer for five or ten minutes. Begin to count and name all your blessings, all the things for which you are grateful; all the ways that God loves and cares for you.

Among my countless blessings, at the top of a long list, is my Dad, whom I remember with great love and cherished memories every Father’s Day, and hundreds of times in between! He and all Fathers will be in my prayers this weekend.

I paid tribute to him in this edition of At Home – go to the bottom 6 or so minutes: At Home with Jim and Joy – 2021-06-14 – Jim and Joy Call-in Show – YouTube

VATICAN INSIDER: FR. MATT BERRIOS AND THE PONTIFICAL ORIENTAL INSTITUTE

My guest this week in the interview is Paulist Fr. Matt Berrios. The Paulist Fathers have been in Rome 99 years, administering to the Catholic American community and other English-language Catholic residents or visitors. We now have two Paulist priests at St. Patrick’s – Fathers Steve Petroff, the rector and Joe Ciccone, vice rector – but a third Paulist is here, Fr. Matt. Ordained at the Paulist-run church of St. Paul the Apostle, in New York City on May 20, 2017, Fr. Matt served there as associate pastor until July 2020 when he moved to Rome to pursue advanced studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute.

Also known as the Orientale, the Italian acronym is PIO. And that is what Fr. Matt will talk about this weekend – what are the Oriental Churches? What studies is he pursuing? What courses does the PIO offer? And much more.

IN THE UNITED STATES, you can listen to Vatican Insider (VI) on a Catholic radio station near you (stations listed at www.ewtn.com) or on channel 130 Sirius-XM satellite radio, or on http://www.ewtn.com. OUTSIDE THE U.S., you can listen to EWTN radio on our website home page by clicking on the right side where you see “LISTEN TO EWTN.” VI airs at 5am and 9pm ET on Saturdays and 6am ET on Sundays. On the GB-IE feed (which is on SKY in the UK and Ireland), VI airs at 5:30am, 12 noon and 10pm CET on Sundays. Both of these feeds are also available on the EWTN app and on www.ewtnradio.net ALWAYS CHECK YOUR OWN TIME ZONE! For VI archives: go to https://www.ewtn.com/radio/audio-archive and write the name of the guest for whom you are serarching in the SEARCH box. Below that, will appear “Vatican Insider” – click on that and the link to that particular episode will appear.

CONGREGATION FOR ORIENTAL CHURCHES MARKS CENTENARY – PONTIFICAL ORIENTAL INSTITUTE: A BRIDGE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST

Pope Francis tweeted today: The statute of Our Lady of Aparecida was found by poor workers. May Mary bless all of us, but especially those seeking employment.

There are so many fascinating institutes, academies and other institutions in Rome that to cover them, even summarily, would require full time dedication to just this area. The same could be said for any (or all) of the Vatican’s nine congregations, some going back almost 500 years while one, the Congregation for Oriental Churches, now celebrates its centenary.

For a small idea of the nature, scope, work and jurisdiction of this congregation – From the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/orientchurch/profilo/rc_con_corient_pro_20030320_profile.html

CONGREGATION FOR ORIENTAL CHURCHES MARKS CENTENARY

Pope Francis celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving this morning at St. Mary Major Basilica to commemorate the centenary of the Congregation for Oriental Churches and the Pontifical Oriental Institute. He also visited the pontifical institute as it is a very short distance from the basilica.

The Congregation for Oriental Churches is responsible for the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome, such as the Maronite, Melkite and Chaldean traditions, to name but three. There are about 16 million faithful in these Churches – about 1.5 % of the Catholic Church.

In his homily, Francis encouraged all Christians of the Oriental Churches to continue with their courageous witness, despite the dramatic persecutions that they suffer. Recalling the establishment of the PIO, the acronym for the pontifical institute, by Benedict XV in 1917, during the First World War, Pope Francis said that today we are living though another “piecemeal” world war. When we see the persecution and worrying exodus of Christians, he said, just like the people of the Old Testament, we cry out “Why?”

He answered by saying, if we pray and trust in the Lord, we know that “’everyone who asks, receives; those who seek, find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened’.. The Spirit is God’s great gift to us, so let’s learn how to knock courageously on the door of God’s heart. May courageous prayer inspire and sustain your service to the Church so that it may bear fruit that does not wither and die.”

Wednesday, at the general audience, Pope Francis had special greetings for Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the congregation and grand chancellor of the Pontifical Oriental Institute. The “Orientale” as it is known in Rome, became part of the “Gregorian Consortium” that includes the Gregorian University and the Biblical Institute, all under the direction and tutelage of the Jesuits.(source: Vatican Radio)

PONTIFICAL ORIENTAL INSTITUTE: A BRIDGE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST

(Vatican Radio) Church leaders from the different Eastern Catholic rites have been gathered in Rome this week to mark the centenary of the foundation of the Pontifical Oriental Institute and the Congregation for Eastern Churches. Pope Francis visited the Institute on Thursday and issued a mesage praising its “high achievements” and reminding it to be always attentive to the “enormous challenges facing Christians in the East”.

In 1917, in the middle of the First World War, Pope Benedict XV wstablished the Institute to be a bridge between East and West and to make the rich traditions of the Oriental Churches available to the entire Catholic world. A century on, the Institute maintains a world class reputation for its research, teaching and publishing on all issues of Eastern theology, liturgies, patristics, history, canon law, literature, spirituality, archeology, as well as questions of ecumenical and geopolitical importance.

Jesuit Father David Nazar is the current rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute. Born in Canada to a family of Ukrainian origin, he’s a former superior of the Society of Jesus in Ukraine and  former Provincial of the Jesuits in the English Canada Province.

He spoke to Vatican Radio, and explained that the ‘Orientale’ as it’s known, is a papal institute, entrusted to the Society of Jesus, to focus on matters concerning all of the Catholic and Orthodox Eastern Churches.

Since many of the Eastern Churches are smaller and lacking the resources of Christians in the West, he says, the popes were concerned to make sure that the wealth of research on liturgy, ancient traditions, and original manuscripts could be made available to Christians across the globe.

Fr Nazar says that over the past century, the Jesuits have worked hard to establish a world class library, which was funded for a number of years by friends of Pope Pius XI. It remains second to none in the world, he notes, in the study of the ancient traditions and languages of the Eastern world.

Much of this work has been significant for the West as well, he adds, such as the Second Vatican Council’s document on the importance of the Eastern Churches “which would have been unimaginable without the fifty years of research that had been done at the Orientale”.