All academic institutions should feel inspired to follow in the footsteps of Father Matteo Ricci, S.J., who was always ready to engage and educate.
Pope Francis gave this encouragement to University of Macerata students and faculty on May 8  in the Vatican.
The public university located in Italy’s Marche region on the Adriatic Coast was founded in 1290, making it one of the oldest European universities still operating.
The Holy Father recalled that the great Jesuit missionary, Father Matteo Ricci, who brought Catholicism to China, was born in Macerata in 1552 and died in Peking in 1610. After the initial efforts of St. Francis Xavier, S.J., thirty years later, Ricci and others succeeded in advancing the missions of the Jesuits in China. The Jesuit Pope encouraged those before him to recall Ricci as an example, and learn from his ability to dialogue with and educate others.
Macerata, the Pope said, gave birth to Father Matteo Ricci a great “champion” of the “culture of dialogue.”
Ricci, the Pope said, “is great,” not only for that which he has done or written but, that in being “a man of encounters, who went beyond being a foreigner and became a citizen of the world.”
“Certainly the university is a privileged place for this encounter. Macerata was the birthplace of this great champion.”
“I congratulate you for not only preserving his memory and promoting studies on him, but also trying to update his example of intercultural dialogue. What a need there is today, at all levels, to resolutely pursue this path, the path of dialogue!”