Pope Francis will bless tomorrow, August 3, the first stone of the Campus Veritati of the Portuguese Catholic University (UCP), at its headquarters in Lisbon, which will begin construction in 2023 and will be located on the north side of the current campus.
The new campus project includes the new facilities of the Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics (CLSBE), which will be renamed the José Manuel de Mello Building, as a result of a donation of €12 million from the José de Mello Group and the José de Mello family, decided in December 2020, in the context of the historical connection to academia and, in particular, to UCP.
The Veritati Campus will also include the Innovation Center - E-Lab, a Multifunctional Conference Center, an auditorium with capacity for 800 people and the new facilities of the Rectory.
According to the Rector of UCP, Isabel Capeloa Gil, the donation decided in 2020 "demonstrates the great alignment of the José de Mello Group and the José de Mello family with the Catholic University, in the common purpose of contributing to the creation of value and affirming differentiating projects for the country".
The blessing of the first stone of Campus Veritati by Pope Francis will take place tomorrow at 9 am at the Meeting with Young University Students at the Catholic University, where testimonies of refugee and migrant students supported by the Pope Francis Fund, created by UCP in 2017, will be shared to support students in emergency.
During the visit, the Holy Father will also receive young people involved in the "Global Education Pact", the "Francis' Economy" initiative and the implementation of the encyclical Laudato si'.
