{"id":46035,"date":"2026-09-07T06:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T06:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/46035\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T06:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T06:39:09","slug":"rome-scholarships-offer-new-path-for-evangelisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/46035\/","title":{"rendered":"Rome scholarships offer new path for evangelisation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Rome, Piazza di Sant\u2019Apollinare, old building of Collegio germanico-ungarico. Photo: Mister No, CC BY 3.0,<\/a> via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n

An Australian foundation is helping priests and seminarians from around the world study in Rome as a way of strengthening the church\u2019s evangelising mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pontifical University of the Holy Cross Foundation trustee Frank Casadesus said improved international travel had opened another avenue for preparing priests to evangelise in their home countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis way is to bring to Rome seminarians and young priests from any diocese or religious order and educate them at a Pontifical University,\u201d Mr Casadesus said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter two or three years in a university at the centre of Christianity, close to the Holy Father, mixing with students and professors from all over the world, they are well prepared to return to evangelise their own country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Australian foundation\u00a0assists\u00a0the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross by funding scholarships for students whose bishops or religious superiors seek financial\u00a0assistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Founded in 1984 by Bishop Blessed \u00c1lvaro del Portillo, the university was raised to the status of a Pontifical University by Pope St John Paul II in 1998. It had 1,200 students from 80 countries during the 2025\u201326 academic year, with close to 300 students requiring scholarships each year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Casadesus said the international character of the university was an important part of the formation students received in Rome. Living and studying alongside seminarians, priests and lay students from different countries exposes them to the experiences and pastoral needs of the church in many parts of the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That formation can then be taken back to their dioceses and religious communities when they return home. Mr Casadesus said graduates often went on to positions of leadership in their local churches and the wider church.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than 75 former students\u00a0of\u00a0the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross have been ordained bishops, including one in Australia, and three have been made cardinals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Others have become seminary professors or serve in diocesan curias.\u00a0For the academic year from October 2026 to June 2027, the Australian foundation is funding scholarships for seven priests from dioceses in the Philippines, Nigeria, India, Colombia, Sri Lanka,\u00a0Mozambique\u00a0and Angola.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is also funding a seminarian from the Diocese of Neyyattinkara in India. Mr Casadesus said strong theological formation for priests was vital to the church\u2019s mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He pointed to Pope Benedict XVI\u2019s words at Castel Gandolfo on 19 August 2009: \u201cWithout well prepared priests, the New Evangelisation of society will be just a slogan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Casadesus said supporting the scholarships was\u00a0ultimately a\u00a0way for Australian Catholics to contribute to the church\u2019s missionary work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAny contribution to this Foundation is a contribution to the evangelisation of the world,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Details at\u00a0www.pontifoundation.org.au<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rome, Piazza di Sant\u2019Apollinare, old building of Collegio germanico-ungarico. Photo: Mister No, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[29581,29582,29583,27],"class_list":["post-46035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rome","tag-catholic-education","tag-evangelisation","tag-pontifical-university-of-the-holy-cross","tag-rome"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}