Brandsma, Luciani, Maire: Alumni witnesses of Charity

“The Lord asks everything of us, and in return he offers us true life, the happiness for which we were created. He wants us to be saints and not to settle for a bland and mediocre existence.” In these opening words of the Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis is indicating a path offered to us all. When we write that the Pontifical Gregorian University numbers 28 Saints, 54 Blessed and 16 Popes among its alumni, we should not understand as a sort of mundane medal-book, but rather as a family archive that documents accomplished lives, constantly enriched, and which, one day, may also include the names of one of us. 

 

Saint Titus Brandsma

On May 15, 2022, the Holy Father presided over the canonisation ceremony of Carmelite priest Titus Brandsma, killed in hatred of the faith in Dachau concentration camp.

Born on 23 February 1881 in Wonseradeel, in northern Holland, the young Carmelite crowned his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University with a Doctorate in Philosophy (1909). He later helped found the Catholic University of Nijmegen, and worked there as lecturer, professor, administrator and rector. 

In addition to spirituality, Titus also cultivated an interest in journalism and publishing, becoming national spiritual advisor to the Union of Catholic Journalists in 1935. He encouraged opposition to the publication of Nazi propaganda in Catholic newspapers and the press in general, criticising in particular the anti-Semitism of the Reich. Even after the Nazi occupation of Holland, he urged the bishops to oppose the persecution of Jews and the systematic violation of human rights by the occupiers. He was imprisoned by the Gestapo on January 19, 1942. He was interned in Dachau, subjected to biological experiments and killed by lethal injection on July 26, 1942.

 

Blessed John Paul I 

On September 4, 2022, the Holy Father presided over the Beatification Mass of Pope John Paul I (né Albino Luciani), Supreme Pontiff. 

Albino Luciani was born on 17 October 1912 in Forno di Canale (currently Canale d’Agordo, Italy). He was a student at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Gregorian University in the academic years 1940-1941 and 1942-1943, where he obtained his Licentiate with a study on trial by ordeal, intended to demonstrate the Church’s mitigating action in the face of this barbaric practice. At the end of the war, despite his demanding commitments as professor and vice-rector at the Gregorian Seminary of Belluno, he enrolled in the fifth year of the Faculty of Theology. He wrote his dissertatio ad lauream under the guidance of Fr Charles Boyer S.J., entitled The origin of the human soul according to Antonio Rosmini. Exposition and critique. He defended his doctoral dissertation on 27 February 1947 and received public praise from the professors of the Gregoriana and other eminent scholars. 

In view of the beatification of the “smiling Pope” the Gregorian University hosted the conference on the legacy of Albino Luciani and his 6-point-plan for his papacy titled I sei “Vogliamo!”: il magistero di papa Luciani alla luce delle carte d’archivio (Aula magna, May 13, 2022) in conjunction with the scientific committee of the Vatican Foundation John Paul I. 

 

The heroic charity of Fr Olivier Maire

We could somewhat paraphrase the conclusion of the Gospel of John to say that the pages of this review would not suffice to describe all the charitable deeds sown, cared for and nurtured on a daily basis by numerous former students. Charity occasionally reaches the point of heroism. It is the case of Father Olivier Maire, SMM, killed in Vendée on August 9, 2021 by an asylum seeker to whom he had given hospitality. 

Father Maire was born in Besançon (France) on 19 November 1960. After his studies in biology, he entered the Society of Mary and was ordained a priest in 1990. Fr Maire studied theology at the Centre Sèvres in Paris. He subsequently obtained his Baccalaureate (1992-1994) and Licentiate (1994-1995) at the Gregorian Institute of Psychology. 

Known for his dedication to the underprivileged and for his generosity, he defended his dissertation on St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, the founder of his Congregation who dedicated his life to the poor, urging his followers never to close their doors and hearts to those in need.