The pro-rector of the Portuguese Catholic University (UCP) in Braga, Paulo Dias, guaranteed yesterday that this institution will ‘continue to train people for the world’.
At the ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Braga Regional Centre, he assured that the session was not just to mark a date, but ‘to make a commitment to the integral formation of the human being in a polyhedron of humanity, which allows for the richest and most intense interaction between knowledge and wisdom, between modernity and culture, between innovation and tradition, between the past, the present and the future. With the search for truth that liberates, humanises and gives meaning. With science that doesn't close in on itself, but that dialogues, that serves, that takes responsibility.’
The academic specified that ‘the UCP Braga Regional Centre was born 25 years ago with this vocation. Combining a legacy of decades of service to higher education, closely linked to Philosophy, Humanities and Theology, but which has been opening up and engaging in dialogue with the different areas of the social sciences, technology and tourism,’ he noted that “there is much to be done to contribute to social transformation”.
‘From Braga, Católica will continue to make a difference,’ he assured, ’opening up training opportunities far beyond the classroom, bringing to its campus institutions and personalities that help build knowledge, valuing and recognising values, culture and new literacies as a differentiating factor in integral human formation.’ ‘This is not just an institution of higher education - it is a community of hope,’ he said, adding that ’there are many challenges, but this is a space where knowledge finds meaning. Where science rediscovers its vocation.’ ‘For the next 25 years, the challenge is great. But it's no greater than our courage. We will continue to train people for the world. Critical citizens, competent professionals, people committed to the common good,’ he said.
For his part, the Mayor of Braga, Ricardo Rio, praised a ‘pedagogical project with a high quality training offer and a sense of involvement with the community’. In a video message, he said that UCP has been a ‘regular partner’ of the local authority, becoming ‘one of the engines of growth in the region’.
The mayor expressed the hope that, in the coming months, a project could go ahead to upgrade and valorise the area around the Catholic University. He also raised the possibility of a project involving UCP's documentary collection and the Municipal Archive.
