The Pilgrim Cross and the Icon of Our Lady Salus Populi Romani were welcomed this Tuesday, February 28th, in an atmosphere of celebration, joy and communion, by the three higher education institutions in Braga: the Catholic University of Portugal (UCP) – Braga Regional Center (CRB), the University of Minho (UMinho) and the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave (IPCA).
The celebration began in the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the UCP and included an analysis of the History and meaning of symbols by a Philosophy student, Beatriz Lisboa; the testimonies of students Vicente Goes and Tiago Torres, who participated in WYDs in Kraków and Madrid; and also with the reflection of Fr. Nelson Faria SJ on some of the “big questions” that young people would like to see answered about the big event scheduled for August 1st to 6th, in Lisbon.
João Duque, Pro-Rector and President of the CRB, highlighted the importance of this passage through the UCP, raising awareness among young people of their role “in the future of the planet”.
After a moment of prayer, they were handed over to UMinho, in a procession between the INL Rotunda and the campus, animated by the Bomboémia group, who received the symbols in a circle around them, made by students of various nationalities, who placed bricks bearing “their” flag on the spot.
Afterwards, the walk headed towards the front of the IPCA branch in Braga, where students and teachers were anxiously awaiting their arrival, to the sound of musical interpretations by the academy's tuna.
The day ended at the Centro Pastoral Universitário, with a mass presided over by the primate archbishop, D. José Cordeiro, and a gathering animated by several academic tunas.
Eduardo Duque, the head of the Centro Pastoral Universitário de Braga and professor at UCP Braga, defined the day as “important to arouse some curiosity in university students” about WYD in the face of “the serious risk of seeing a set of news, every day, about WYD, which are anything but what really matters”.