Trying the impossible to achieve what is unusual has been our history”, declared Isabel Capeloa Gil, Rector of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa at the academic session of the UCP Day, on February 11, at the Cardeal Medeiros Auditorium, in Lisbon.
The Rector of UCP highlighted, as successes of the last year, the inauguration of the first private Medical School in Portugal, the creation of a new state-of-the-art research center in Biomedical Sciences and the inauguration of the first degree in Portugal in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Under the motto “For a new Humanism”, Isabel Capeloa Gil reflected on the role of the university, in the year in which the UCP celebrates 55 years of existence. In her speech, she clarified that “in a Catholic university, the proposal of a new humanism requires affirming the knowledge produced as a service to society and humanity in its diverse relationship with the world”.
The service to society of António Horta Osório and Joseph Weiler was also highlighted in this session, with the attribution of Honoris Causa Doctorates. António Horta Osório thus became the first UCP alumnus to receive an Honoris Causa from the same institution where he graduated. “In a time of uncertainty, these are personalities who risked the impossible to achieve what is unusual. Both contributed with their action so that the UCP is today a university of excellence”, said Isabel Capeloa Gil.
Graduated in Business Management and Administration in 1987, by the UCP, António Horta Osório shared the three values he considers relevant in his personal and professional path: “the importance of having ambitious goals, the importance of planning, and the importance of working and dedication”. Joseph Weiler, coordinator of the LL.M Law in a European program at Global Context, from the Católica Global School of Law, reflected on justice in contemporary democracies. “We live in a society where polarization is what bothers us the most”, he said, adding: “We need a new Humanism”.
The ceremony also included the imposition of insignia and the delivery of doctoral letters to the new doctors. In the end, the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon and Great Chancellor of the UCP, D. Manuel Clemente, called for “a society for the future that starts from its essential element, the humanity of each and every one”, explaining that “it is possible and not a utopia”, when recalling the path of the new Honoris Causa Doctors and affirming that “this is also what a university is for".
Watch the ceremony here.
