The Opening Ceremony of the new academic year 2024-2025 took place on October 18 at the Cardeal Medeiros auditorium in Lisbon, an event that brought together the academic community to celebrate the new graduates and welcome the new students.
Isabel Capeloa Gil, President of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, stated that “the University implies the structural formation of the person, but also the contribution to the improvement of society and the planet” and that “the Institution must understand itself as a space for exploration, an eternal project and a work that is always unfinished”. She also left a word of congratulations to the Faculty of Biotechnology, which is celebrating 40 years and also to the career teachers, who received the Medals of Merit for the first time for 25 and 40 years of service.
Miguel Freitas, an alumnus of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Vice President of Scientific Affairs at Danone in New York, recalled “the excellence of the teaching staff and the dynamic teaching, very focused on practice, and the development of teamwork projects”, which were fundamental to his training.
On this occasion, Luís Bandeira, from CGD, also presented the UCP/Caixa Geral de Depósitos Awards to the students with the best grades in each degree programme.
Aníbal Cavaco Silva also attended the ceremony and presented the Democracy and Development Prize, which he established in 1995, to two students from the Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics. On this occasion, he expressed his enormous pride in the university where he was a teacher, emphasising that he sees Católica “as a tree that produces good fruit”.
The Patriarch of Lisbon and Chancellor of the Universidade Católica, D. Rui Valério, closed the ceremony with words of hope for the entire academic community, emphasising the “importance of the vocational legacy that the Universidade Católica Portuguesa has in its highest values and standards of Christian Humanism”.
