The Pontifical Faculty of Theology organized a public conference, on November 28, 2005, given by the Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for catholic Education. The lecturer was in Lebanon to take part in the 13th congress of the world organization of the alumni of the catholic teaching which was held at the end of November at N.D. of the Mount in Fatqa.

Its conference related to “the place of the faculty of theology in a catholic university”. First of all he spoke about faculties of theology, namely those which “deal particularly with the Christian Revelation and the questions which are related to it…”. It treated of their principle duty, of their dimension connected with the church and the characteristics of theological work. In the second part of his conference, Cardinal Grocholewski spoke about faculties of theology within the university. He mentioned, on this occasion, various elements which can turn the faculties of theology into a constructive interlocutor in the academic world, and that from the point of view of a progress “which looks at well of the man”: the central place of the man, the research of the sense, the dialogue between faith and reason…

Lastly, in a third part, he spoke about the universities like enrichment for the faculties of theology, emphasizing here that the university context has a major role to play “to stimulate the theologists to consider the revealed truth `in relation to scientific acquisitions of the contemporary time'”.

He wished in conclusion that the Pontifical Faculty of Theology of the USEK “contributes in a profitable way to build the Church in Lebanon” and that its share “contributes to the development of the theological thought for the universal Church”.