The laudatory words of his Bishop resonated with beauty, describing Don José Luis as “a brother, a believer, a witness to the love of God who wanted to do good”.

This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Francis received in audience a representative of the Saint Anthony Catholic University of Murcia (Spain) and addressed those present with the following words of greeting:

Greetings from the Holy Father

Dear friends,
Your Excellency,

I am pleased to welcome you here today in this house of Peter, as representatives of the Catholic University of Murcia, as we celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of its establishment and the recent passing of its founder José Luis Mendoza Pérez. Your bishop described him as “a brother, a believer, a witness of God’s love, who wanted to pass by doing good”. These are beautiful words: no-one is perfect, but we are all capable of love, and being remembered for this is what brings us closer to God and his mercy.

Don José Luis wished to leave the legacy of a “missionary, evangelizing and profoundly existential” university, born from the heart of the Church and “inspired by the force of God’s love”. Because everything the Christian does as a member of Christ, of this Church who is our mother, must be missionary, evangelizing, and precisely for this reason, must be linked to human reality, to humanity’s deep questions, to be essentially existential.

This is my wish for all of you: that you continue to work from the heart of the Church to bring Christ to every man who enters your classrooms, your lives, to form people capable of welcoming God and of bearing witness to Him in any context, building a fraternal society where the Church is perceived in the good deeds of her members.

Thank you for what you do.

May Jesus bless you and the Virgin of the Pietà keep you. And, please, do not forget to pray for me.

Thank you.

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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 4 January 2024

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