Experience, faith and professionalism: these are the offers that characterize the Pontifical Athenaeum “Regina Apostolorum”
By Don Mauro Gagliardi, Professor at the Faculty of Theology
The formation offer of the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum is presented in the Web institutional (upra.org) with these words: «All the academic activity of the Athenaeum is oriented to the fulfillment of its mission: to form apostles […] at the service of the Church to bear witness to the mystery of Christ, to create cultural currents of Christian thought that, in full communion with the Magisterium of the Church and responding to man’s theoretical and existential questions, imbue society with a Christian spirit.
The Athenaeum was founded and is governed by the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ. Already from the name of the founding entity, the privileged approach to the mystery of Christ is intuited, cultivated as central both in spirituality and in studies. For several years, I have had the privilege of teaching the subject of Christology and Soteriology at the Faculty of Theology.
These two branches of theology deal with the mystery of the Person and the Work of Christ. In the Christology and Soteriology course we study who Jesus is and what He has done for us.
The course is developed in the perspective that we have just mentioned: to form apostles at the service of the Church, to bear witness to the mystery of Christ in the current cultural context, in full harmony with the past and present Magisterium of the Church.
A theology course is not a spiritual retreat, nor a training course for pastoral agents. In this, sometimes complex issues are addressed that are not immediately understood by everyone.
The theologyinstead, is a science of faith, which implies not only that we study it with faith, but also that it retains a scientific character. That theology is scientific does not mean that it is separated from pastoral care or mission. On the contrary, it implies that pastoral care and mission will be facilitated if they are preceded and accompanied by serious theological study. This is so because they will rest on a solid foundation, since the new Christian apostles (ordained ministers, religious and laity) will be well prepared, precisely because they will have thoroughly studied a theology that corresponds to the faith and is consistent with the mission.
Therefore, the Athenaeum place the word “excellence” in the middle. This term is frequently repeated in the programming phase, because we are aware that we must make – with God’s help – all possible efforts to consolidate and reinforce more and more the quality of studies and all study support services. that the university offers to both students and professors.
It is from this perspective of constant search for excellence that it is necessary to reread the hard work and the many initiatives produced since the first erection of the Pontifical Athenaeum in 1993, which will soon celebrate 30 years of its ‘birth’.
The theological renewal of the 20th century encompassed various fields and perspectives. Through an increased focus on salvation history, a more Christological character was also imparted to theology. In clearer terms, recent theology has focused on the concrete way in which God has revealed himself and acted in history for our salvation.
Looking at the history of salvation and considering the Bible as the soul of theology, always united to the body of the Apostolic Tradition, current theology has identified Jesus Christ as the center and the fulfillment of all the revelation and history of salvation.
The knowledge of the mystery of God the Trinity, as well as the concrete realization of God’s plan for the world, are given in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of the Father made man, the only Mediator between God and men. This Trinitarian Christocentrism is the foundation of the Christian faith and, consequently, it also functions as the organizing and coordinating principle of that discipline of study known as the science of faith, or theology. The training offer of Regina Apostolorum take this into account centrality of the mystery of Christ.
Therefore, in the course of Christology and Soteriology, connections often arise between this central mystery and the other mysteries of faith, studied in the other courses of the formative offer.
The Athenaeum allows students to learn about the multiple branches of Catholic theology and finds in the mystery of Christ the great Synthesis necessary for a unified vision of both faith and theology.
Pope Francis recalled the importance of having this synthetic vision: «The challenge of an inculturated preaching is to transmit the synthesis of the message, not disconnected ideas or values. Where your synthesis is, there is your heart. The difference between illuminating the place of synthesis and illuminating loose ideas is the same as there is between boredom and the burning of the heart» (Evangelii Gaudium, no. 143).
For to form this synthetic vision of faith in Christ, it is necessary to be demanding with himself in the study, which is a commitment that must be taken very seriously if you want to adequately correspond to the vocation to be at the disposition of the Lord and of the Church to evangelize.
For the students, it remains important both to have an inner gaze directed towards those who will one day evangelize, and to understand that in study it is necessary to address even questions that might sometimes seem useless, if considered in the light of that future ministry.
But this perplexity can be answered with the words of Benedict XVI: «The subjects of study often seem very far from the practice of Christian life and pastoral service. However, it is totally wrong to always ask the pragmatic question: Will this work for me in the future? Will it be of practical, pastoral use to me?
It is not just a matter of learning the obviously useful things, but of knowing and understanding the internal structure of the faith in its entirety, so that it becomes an answer to people’s questions, which change externally from generation to generation, and without however they remain basically the same. Therefore, it is important to go beyond the changing questions of the moment to understand the real questions and thus also understand the answers as real answers” (letter to seminarians, 10.18.2010, no. 5).
The training offer of the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum aspires to excellence