All Authorities, Magnificent Rectors and delegates of the other universities, Presidents, institutional and academic representatives, and all of you, dear students, ladies and gentlemen
This year we are not here to celebrate the traditional - but still solemn and meaningful - inauguration of the academic year ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma.
This year the ceremony that I have the privilege, the honor but also the thrill of introducing, at the same time extending my warmest welcome together with that of the entire Campus family, is something that goes beyond custom and takes on a dense and very deep.
This year is - in fact - the thirtieth anniversary of the foundation of our university.
A birthday that for us represents, at the same time, a beautiful goal but also an important challenge for the future. On the one hand, the confirmation that the values on which the extraordinary intuition of Blessed Àlvaro del Portillo was based, which made it possible to give life to this university and the Polyclinic, have been consolidated and strengthened day after day. On the other hand, the start of a year that will be one of profound reflection for us to find new and stronger impetus for a growth that has certainly been impetuous but has never lost sight of the need to combine ethics, science, research, technology , care, assistance, help, solidarity, value of the person, Christian identity.
Constant research, therefore, for man and around man, in solid and constant respect for our main mission: to contribute to guaranteeing or returning to the person the greatest good, health, but also to design a world and a sustainable future.
And these young people, to whom we try to convey the importance of becoming, in the profession, reference models in moral and spiritual terms but also in terms of wisdom and quality in work, are the best and most extraordinary confirmation of this.
It is no coincidence that we have decided to recap these thirty years and this special 2023 – which will celebrate the Thirtieth Anniversary with a series of initiatives – with a slogan that I believe is particularly effective: "Deep roots and a look to the future". Here: the Campus is just that.
Allow me now, with real emotion, to recall the visit to our university by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of the 2019 ceremony. An event that represented an important recognition for the work done for the whole Campus family, but above all the highest and most authoritative institutional testimony ever addressed to us. What we are and will be eternally grateful to the Head of State. Knowing it close to us, to our values, to our work, comforts and encourages us. President, I know that you are here with us today.
A thank you at this point is due to those who have contributed to the growth of theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma: from our teachers to our students, through all the staff and external collaborators. Without you, women and men of the Campus, without your moral drive, without your attachment to the hard work every day, without that spirit of service that distinguishes us - without differences - at every level, we would not be here today to celebrate this important milestone.
We are pleased to greet Dr. Marcella Gargano, Director of the General Directorate of Higher Education Institutions, who is among us representing the Minister of University and Research, Senator Anna Maria Bernini, and many other institutional guests. Their presence is for us a sign of recognition of the important role that our university plays in the Italian academic and scientific panorama. Thank you very much and heartily.
Clinging to this solid trunk with deep roots, let us therefore look to the future. To our growth in synergy with the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital Foundation, with the aim of offering ever-increasing quality services.
University and Policlinico Foundation: as I never tire of repeating, two models of excellence that now move in parallel, but always in a convergent way on the contents of values, also sharing and enhancing organizational and management models.
As I have already mentioned, in these thirty years our university has never lost sight of the need to aim unreservedly at what I would define as the "integral education" of our students. Academic and professional training, therefore, but also human and social training. We want, and it seems to me that we have succeeded, to create high-level professionals but, at the same time, social operators and citizens who are attentive to needs, to humanity, to sharing, to help, to availability. In short, as St. Josemaría said: "Each of us, in carrying out our work, in exercising his profession in society, he can and must convert his occupation into a task of service".
To conclude: we are aware of the challenges that await us and of the responsibilities that fall to us; our commitment is to continue to promote a culture of quality and excellence, in which values, research, training and the centrality of the person are one and mutually enriching.
I close my speech by wishing you all an academic year full of satisfactions, successes but above all a future full of not only professional but human and spiritual gratifications!
And thanks again to those who wanted to share the joy of this day with us!
