The Romanian Pontifical College (Romanian: Colegiul Pontifical Pio Romeno) is a college established by Pope Pius XI for young people from the Romanian Greek Catholic Church who are in various phases of study at the universities of Rome, particularly post-graduates, and including seminarians and priests, many living in the college.
History
Pope Pius IX established four scholarships for Romanian theological students at the Pontifical Greek College of Saint Athanasius in Rome. In 1898, the Romanians were transferred to the Pontifical Urban College for the Propagation of the Faith. In 1930, Pius XI began to lay the foundations for a college of their own, which was finally inaugurated on 9 March 1937.[1]
The patron saint of the college is John of Damascus.
The college's first rector was Angelo Dell'Acqua, and other past rectors include Vasile Cristea, later Romanian bishop in exile, the Benedictine monk Olivier Raquez (1994–2004), and Claudiu-Lucian Pop (2007–2011).
The college was visited on 15 May 2015 by President Klaus Iohannis and on 12 May 2018 by Viorica Dăncilă, head of the Romanian government.[2]
In May 2022, Pope Francis held an audience with members of the college to mark the eighty-fifth anniversary of its founding.[3]
Notes
- ^ Iulian Boldea, Memory, Identity and Intercultural Communication (Edizioni Nuova Cultura, 2012), p. 94
- ^ "Dăncilă s-a întâlnit cu studenții români de la Vatican Arhivat", agerpres.ro, 12 May 2018, accessed 21 April 2024 (in Romanian)
- ^ "Pope to Romanian College: Be true to your roots to bear fruit", Vatican News, May 2022, accessed 21 April 2024
External links
- Address to the College by Pope Francis, May 2017