Easter message from the President

All human nature vigorously resists grace,

because grace transforms us and change is always painful.

Flannery O’Connor                                                                                                                  

Celebrating Easter means recognising that light inevitably breaks through the darkest night. It's letting the silent gesture of the stone removed from the tomb translate into concrete hope, capable of renewing the human heart, communities and the world.

At a time when humanity is still going through uncertainty and the wounds are deepening, Easter is an invitation to start again. Not from forgetfulness or suffering, but from courage - with gestures of reconciliation, with listening, with active solidarity.

Inspired by these words from Flannery O'Connor, we recognise that personal and community renewal requires the courage to welcome grace, even when it deconstructs our certainties. The courage, after all, to let God make all things new - also within us, and also within our university.

At university, this renewal is a daily call: to educate for the common good, to research ethically, to build bridges between knowledge and between people. True Easter renewal involves the courage to imagine the world not as it is, but as it can and should become - more just, more human, more whole.

May this Easter renew in us the courage for transformation and may the year of the Jubilee foster the hope that commits us. And may we, as an academic community, increasingly be a place of encounter, growth and service.

A Holy and Happy Easter!

Isabel Capeloa Gil
President