Mexico City, November 10, 2022.- During his visit to Mexico, the Prelate of Opus Dei, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, visited the facilities of Ciudad Panamericana and met with professors, collaborators and authorities of our university.
Overall goals
Dr. Fernanda Llergo, General Rector of UP and IPADE, asked Father to give some advice on how the Panamericana can work together with trust and unity, to which he said: "There comes, on the one hand, trust in others and the self-confidence of knowing that others can learn. Joint goals go much further than separate individual ones".
"There has to be some collaboration (between faculties and schools), interest, knowledge of each other's work, because from knowledge easily come initiatives, suggestions," he said.
Afterwards, Lorenzo Fernández Alonso, Director General of IPADE, asked the Father for his opinion on the formation of students at the business school, to which he suggested training students well and maintaining, as far as possible, contact with alumni: "so that they feel united to the university and therefore continue to have some way of receiving information and feel responsible for transmitting what they have received," he said.
Christian identity issues
Afterwards, Bishop Ocariz spoke to the entire UP community about the relationship between personal and institutional Christian identity and expressed the importance of the university having the necessary requirements to provide, to those who are part of it, an environment of Christian life, in which freedom plays an important role: "Freedom is a human value, certainly, but very fundamentally Christian," he said.
Thus, he explained that the relationship of freedom with the university lies in: "Not imposing opinions as if they were dogmas at the time of teaching (...) That there is also a freedom of teaching while maintaining, logically, a Christian responsibility".
He also spoke of the relevance of justice in the daily work of the university: "Another question of the Christian identity of the university is justice: justice must be lived at all levels, in the fulfillment of one's duties, in the retribution of those who work.
Another of the Christian principles that he expressed that should be lived in Panamericana was charity: "We must really encourage concern for one another", as well as collegiality in the way we run our institution.
He explained: "It is proper to a Christian spirit that there should be no tyrants, that there should be no people with absolute power . Even if there are moments in which only one person must decide, that person can and must count on the opinion of others".
"At this point it is important to collaborate and avoid individualism, to know how to help and be helped, (...)", he said.
Spirit of service
When speaking to Father about some of the social work that Panamericana carries out under the management of Social Commitment, the prelate took the opportunity to talk about the spirit of service as a matter that should be at the center of everything.
In this way he advised those present, as St. Josemaría pointed out, "tosee the functions of government and management at any level as what they are: as a service, and for this reason (it is important) to be willing to make changes, which in many places is not the case, but here it certainly is and will always be the case".
On the same point he added: "it is not a triumph to become dean of a faculty, it is a service that is done (...) at all levels we do nothing but serve each other, but if we are aware, we will do it with more joy and less comfort," he said.
For dialogue with others
When asked for recommendations on how to establish a dialogue with the contemporary world based on the Christian identity of the Pan-American, he said: "It is important to know how to recognize the valid aspects of the other person, of the other attitude. Even in the most absurd aspects there is always some truth that we can take as a point of contact for dialogue".
He also suggested treating the points of view of others with respect and "as far as possible, with friendship, because deep down many people also open up to the truth through affection".
Training in justice
Ocáriz also took the opportunity to remind those present, especially from IPADE: "do not only train people who will earn money, who will promote the economic progress of society, of companies, etc., but also (train them) in a spirit of justice (...) produce a lot of money, yes, but for everyone, for a social dimension, for the intercession of the country, to avoid as many differences as there are. There will always be differences, but there are differences that cry out to heaven".
Finally, Bishop Fernando Ocáriz took his leave, but not before leaving a written message to the UP community in his guestbook: "With joy at being at this university, I go to the intercession of St. Josemaría, asking our Lord that the fruits of science and charitable spirit in the authorities, professors and students may be ever more abundant.
