On Thursday, 19 January 2012, the seminar, "The University in the Thinking of Pope Benedict XVI?, was held in the UIC Graduate Hall for professors in the Faculty of Humanities. The seminar was moderated by Dr. Josep Corcó.
The speakers were Dr. Josep Ignasi Saranyana, a member of the Pontifical Committee of Historical Sciences and emeritus professor of the History of Theology at the University of Navarra, and Dr. María García Amilburu, a professor of the Philosophy of Education at the UNED.
The first speaker was Dr. Saranyana, who analysed the most important topic addressed by the Pope in relation to the university: rationality. Pope Benedict XVI spoke on this topic in four different speeches, given in Regensburg (2006), La Sapienza (2008), Westminster Hall (2010) and Berlin (2011).
Of all the proposals made by Dr. Saranyana, the most relevant was that "The rationality of faith is a firm base for common understanding among people, regardless of their cultural circumstances and their religious convictions. For this reason, Christianity has much to say about the construction of modern society because it has always placed great importance on rationality from the very beginning".
Dr. García Amilburu presented her lecture "The Present and Future of the University: The Vision of Pope Benedict XVI". She listed the three qualities the Pope said should be cultivated by the university as the house of truth: focusing on the complete person, seeking the truth through interdisciplinary dialogue and pursuing dialogue between faith and culture.
