As part of the Jubilee Year of Hope, delegates from the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute, from countries across five continents, met this week in Rome for the opening of the academic year. The meeting was attended by María Dolores García, UCAM president, the institution that administers and manages the Institute's Madrid headquarters, accompanied by a delegate from this academic centre, and María Mendoza, member of the Board of Trustees of the San Antonio Foundation. 

During this meeting, the Holy Father received the members of the Pontifical Institute in audience in the Clementine Hall. This was the first meeting between the UCAM president, María Dolores García, and Pope Leo XIV, who greeted each other warmly, with His Holiness taking the opportunity to congratulate the university president on her birthday, which was that same day. This meeting is part of the close relationship that the University has maintained with the Holy See and with successive popes, since St. John Paul II, the inspiration behind the Institute itself. 

The UCAM president also met with Monsignor Carlo Maria Polvani, secretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, with whom she discussed the common lines of work between UCAM, and the Holy See in the areas of integral training and Christian humanism. During her stay in Rome, María Dolores García also participated in the General Assembly of the International Federation of Catholic Universities (FIUC) and in the Women Leadership and Catholic Universities Congress, international forums that brought together academic leaders from around the world to analyse the challenges facing Catholic universities in today's society, as well as the role of women in this field.