The Catholic University “Our Lady of Good Counsel” is hosting the General Assembly of the European Federation of Catholic Universities on 20-22 October 2022.
Founded in 1991, the « Federation of European and Lebanon Catholic Universities » (FUCE) includes 56 catholic universities from 17 countries in Europe and 6 universities from Lebanon. The role of FUCE in European community of catholic universities is substantial. In fact, FUCE encourages and inspires Catholic Universities to establish and strengthen direct linkages by means of frequent meetings and collaborative projects. In practice, FUCE helps Catholic Universities which wish to put in place and create bridges across geographies and social realities, inducing collaboration across disciplines and modes of knowledge production. At the same time, FUCE aims to foster spaces of dialogue amongst its members, institutions, researchers and between them and other societal actors. In sum, the federation focuses mainly on helping its members to carry out their mission in the contemporary world; it contributes to the evolution of knowledge and its implementation along with the development of a more equitable and human world under the light of reason and the Christian faith.
The Catholic University ‘Our Lady of Good Counsel’ has been a member of FUCE for many years and then it has been chosen to host the general assembly and it also has had the opportunity to contribute to the working program of the event. At the general assembly the Rectors of Catholic Universities gather to discuss the relevant challenges faced nowadays by catholic universities. In brief, this annual assembly is the most important meeting for the community of the catholic universities in Europe. Needless to say, the ‘Our Lady’ will take care of the general organization of this assembly as well as to the public recognition of the event. Two distinguished guests will open the assembly: on October 20th Minister of Education Mrs. Evis Kushi will open the event and eventually the former Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, H.E. Mgr Zani will release a talk on the Vatican global pact on education. On October 21st the Rectors will join working session and panels to discuss the main contemporary issues. In this context, the ‘Our Lady’ has contributed to this program by organizing the panels "Catholic Universities facing intercultural and interreligious societies" and “Catholic universities standing for Peace, dialogue and solidarity”. The first is intended to discuss the issues and the complexities of managing religious universities into inter-religious societies. The ‘Our Lady’ in Albania has been promoting this dialogue and reflections for some years in several meetings. The second panel will focus on the practice to research and teach peace within universities. Even in this case the ‘Our Lady’ will bring to other catholic universities its experience which has taken shape in the latest years through the activities of CESPIC (The European Center of Peace Science, Integration and Cooperation) since 2016.
In sum, the Catholic University ‘Our Lady of Good Counsel’ is bringing to Tirana the most important meeting for the community of catholic universities in Europe. This will be the occasion for ‘Our Lady’ to present the advancements accomplished in the latest years also presenting Tirana to a wide community of distinguished scholars from the whole Europe.
