Marco Carvalho
The Bishop of Macau, Most Reverend Stephen Lee Bun-sang, celebrated this morning a Thanksgiving Mass for the 25th anniversary of the University of Saint Joseph. The bishop cited Pope Francis’ Patris corde which talks about St Joseph and encouraged everyone to learn from his fatherly virtues.
The Church of the Nativity of Our Lady hosted this morning a Thanksgiving Mass for the 25th anniversary of the creation of the University of Saint Joseph.
Presided over by the Bishop of Macau, D. Stephen Lee Bun-sang, the ceremony took place at 10 am. Citing the Holy Father’s Pastoral Letter Patris corde (“With the heart of a father”), Bishop Lee encouraged everyone to imitate the fatherly virtues of the Holy Patriarch.
The bishop also said that aside from giving thanks to the Lord for the past 25 years in which He guided the university’s growth and development, he also invited the students and teachers to ask for grace for the next 25 and more years.
Afterwards, the participants headed to the Ruins of Saint Paul’s, to take a group photo in front of the remnants of the Mater Dei Church.
The anniversary observance is much more than a circumstantial gesture, as it is filled with great symbolism, the University of Saint Joseph explains in the press release: “USJ is rooted in a long tradition of intercultural exchange that has been the hallmark of Catholic higher education in Macau since the College of Saint Paul, founded in 1594. ‘Scientia et Virtus’ (Knowledge and Virtue), the motto of the Diocese of Macau, points its academic community to a harmonious pursuit of truth and the common good for the benefit of humanity, the Chinese people and Macau’s multicultural society,” the higher education institution.
Created in 1996 by the Diocese of Macau and Portugal’s Catholic University, then under the name of the Inter-University Institute of Macau, the University of Saint Joseph of Macau officially celebrated its 25th anniversary at the beginning of December, being distinguished at the time with a Papal Blessing.
Over the last 25 years, Macau’s Catholic university has conferred academic degrees to more than 7,500 professionals from more than 60 countries and territories. Currently, 1,209 students are enrolled in the more than thirty academic programs that are offered by the University. The higher education institution, which in September was authorized by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China to recruit students on the Mainland, albeit only on an experimental basis, will promote its annual job fair at the end of the month. The initiative is co-organized by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Economic and Trade Promotion Association and brings together more than three dozen companies and organizations that will provide more than one thousand jobs for students and alumni of the University. Under the theme “Exploring Network Diversity – Promoting Economic Sustainability,” the initiative takes place on March 29th, between 11 am and 5 pm, on USJ’s camp on Ilha Verde.
(With reports from Jasmin Yiu)
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