• Fr Dr Antony Situma Nalianya, Rome

Pope Francis in his Apostolic Constitution Veritatis Gaudium (2018) called for the renewal and revival process of all Pontifical Universities so that they can contribute more effectively to the Church’s mission. In a response to this call, the Dicastery for Evangelization – Section for First Evangelization and the New Particular Churches, convened a plenary assembly in Rome on 29th- 30th August 2024, to discuss the future of the Pontifical Urban University, which educates priests, religious and laypeople from the Catholic Church’s mission territories.

The Pontifical Urban University, typically called ‘Urbaniana’ responds to the authority and activity of the Dicastery for Evangelization. Its mandate and competence are in accordance with the organizational plan laid down in the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium (2022) for the reform of the Roman Curia. Such a reform was meant to favour a more effective evangelization; to promote a more fruitful ecumenical spirit; and to encourage a more constructive dialogue with all peoples. This will eventually lead to the strengthening of the unity of faith and the communion of the people of God, and the advancing of the mission of the Church in the world.

At the end of the session the plenary assembly had an audience with the Holy Father. It had been noted that during the plenary discussions, proposals were made in view of absorbing the 400-year-old missionary-focused university in Rome into other pontifical universities.

“Urbaniana is characterized within the other Roman Pontifical Universities by its character of universality, expressed not only by the large number of countries from which its students and lecturers come from and by the numerous Aggregate and Affiliated Institutes, but above all by the attention to the study of the cultures and great world religions with which the Catholic Church enters into dialogue in its missionary commitment Ad Gentes.”

Speaking to the participants of the Extraordinary Plenary Assembly of the Section for the First Evangelization and the New Particular Churches who had come from the various continents to reflect on the identity, mission, expectations and future of the Pontifical Urban University, Pope Francis outrightly opposed the plan to dissolve and blend Urbaniana with other pontifical universities. He reiterated that the identity of Urbaniana has always coincided with mission. “The formation, teaching, research and daily life of the University are all part of the mandate we have received to proclaim the Good News to all peoples (cf. Mk 16:15).”

To the cardinals, bishops, priests, and religious gathered for the plenary, the Pope said that the identity and vocation of that academic institute, genetically linked to the Missionary Dicastery (descending from the Congregation of Propaganda Fide) consists in ‘missionarity’. This specific identity is always connected to the life of the local Churches. However, this identity is and shall never be definitive but always open-ended. As such it needs “to be guided constantly by the breath of the Spirit who directs history and who calls us to read the signs of the times in which we live.” Noting that Christians are called to live their vocation in a pluralistic society, the Pope insisted that the heritage on which Urbaniana is founded “needs to find contemporary expression in efforts to respond to the challenges presently facing the Church and our world.”

The Pope praised the Missionary Dicastery for adopting the synodal method in running the affairs of the plenary assembly. The synodal method expresses the life of the Church marked by reciprocal listening, whereby everyone has something to learn. It is this life of communion expressed by the journeying together of God’s people along the paths of history towards the encounter with Christ, that makes the Church synodal. Hence, prior to the Assembly, the Missionary Dicastery gathered requests, opinions, evaluations, expectations and suggestions expressed by the various Episcopal Conferences regarding the present and future of the Pontifical Urban University.

Urbaniana is a mission-based university which was founded as the Urban College in 1627 by Pope Urban VIII. It was established as the Pontifical Athenaeum of the Propagation of Faith. It formed part of the educational aspects of the then Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide. In 1962, it was elevated to a pontifical university with a mandate to train and educate the priests, religious, and laypeople who help spread the Gospel in mission territories and in places of primary evangelization.

Pope Francis proposed the taking advantage of the fruits of the best initiatives and creative proposals for the betterment of the status of Urbaniana for the good of evangelization. Part of his suggestions included: improving the quality of education and research, and the judicious use of human and economic resources; looking beyond the present and assessing the contemporary ecclesial and social contexts; developing a healthy creativity when coming up with suitable plans and projects; making Urbaniana attractive and competitive by having dedicated instructors, scientific research and significant contributions to scholarship; utilizing adequately the available resources by eliminating duplication; sharing lecturers synergetically across the pontifical universities; eliminating unnecessary spending; planning activities wisely and abandoning outdated practices and programmes.

While focusing attentively on the missionary and intercultural specificity of Urbaniana, the quality of the intellectual formation could be ameliorated so as to produce graduates who can be creative in mediating the Christian message vis-à-vis other cultures and religions. There is an urgent need for missionary agents filled with the apostolic zeal for the evangelization of culture and the inculturation of the Gospel.

As if to insist again on the unique identity of Urbaniana, the Pope postulated that more research centres should “be set up for the different geographical and cultural regions, while strengthening those already existing. Encouragement should also be given to affiliating the seminaries and schools of theology present in missionary territories.”

The Pontifical Urban University, obtained from its founding charters, the commitment to activate the teaching of disciplines functional to the promotion of the missionary consciousness of the Church and the study of the cultures of peoples and the related processes of inculturation of the Gospel. Accordingly it had the very first faculty for Missiology in the world in 1931. It has always been an academic institution with a missionary and intercultural nature.

It is vital to recognize this sense of missionary activity and the dimension of Primary Evangelization as the foundation of the distinctive identity of Urbaniana as an academic reality. Urbaniana is characterized within the other Roman Pontifical Universities by its character of universality, expressed not only by the large number of countries from which its students and lecturers come from and by the numerous Aggregate and Affiliated Institutes, but above all by the attention to the study of the cultures and great world religions with which the Catholic Church enters into dialogue in its missionary commitment Ad Gentes.

This unique identity should be a bridge to grasp new needs with promptness and enthusiasm. It is an identity that is capable of combining the ever-renewed insights of research, dynamic educational paths and educational experiences with the emerging global issues in mission. It bears a singular and fruitful intercontinental missionary training network for the benefit of its lecturers and students. This extraordinary opportunity allows it to pursue that permanent renewal by constantly updating its objectives and academic contents.

• (Rev. Fr. Antony Situma Nalianya belongs to Catholic Diocese of Kitale, KENYA. 
  He holds a doctorate in Biblical Theology from the Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome.)