As per tradition, the inauguration includes two moments, one spiritual and one purely academic:
- at 9:30 am (UTC+2), in the "Santa Maria della Speranza" parish church, adjacent to the university, Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, Grand Chancellor of the UPS and Rector Major of the Salesians, will preside over the Eucharistic celebration.
- at 11:00, in the university’s Paul VI Hall, the Academic activity will begin, with the Report of the new Rector Magnificus, appointed last June, Prof. Fr. Andrea Bozzolo, and the keynote address by Prof. Susy Zanardo, professor of Moral Philosophy at the European University of Rome, specialist on the themes of ethics, anthropology, and relations of gift and the different forms of reciprocity, in the intertwining between philosophical reflection, social sciences and psychoanalysis.
In view of the opening of the new academic year and the resumption of lessons, which is the first to open under his rectorate, Fr Bozzolo sent a message to the Professors and students, illustrating the meaning of the year’s guiding theme, “With young people for a new beginning. Changing times and the grace of hope.”
“'With young people' is an expression that comes from the heart of the Salesian charism. Don Bosco fulfilled his work not only as a set of structures and activities for the young people of his time, but also as an educational and spiritual experience that took shape and quality with their active involvement. It is a style and an experience that we intend to continue here at the UPS with you, young people, and your educators.
'For a new beginning': after the severe restrictions caused by the pandemic, today we find ourselves hoping for a 'restart' which we hope will be stable and lasting. But the new beginning we need is above all cultural, ethical, and spiritual. The exit from the obsessive cult of personal autonomy, which consumes the world and others as pure instruments of its own fulfillment, and the start of a new anthropological season.”
The new year, thus starts with vision and determination at the UPS in the awareness, quoting Fr Bozzolo again, of the “task that God and history assign to our time; to form students who will have to assume great responsibilities in the Church and in society.”
To watch the Mass and the inauguration of the Academic year live, visit the University website: www.unisal.it
