An Evening at the ITI with His Eminence Cardinal Schönborn

Last week, it was a great joy to welcome our Grand Chancellor, His Eminence Christopher Cardinal Schönborn, to the ITI. His Eminence came for a pastoral visit, celebrating the first university common Mass after Easter break and giving another of his ITI lectures on St. Thomas Aquinas.

For the lecture this time, Cardinal Schönborn chose the topic of love (caritas), which is discussed in what is, in his opinion, the key question of St. Thomas’ Summa Theologiae (IIa-IIae Q23). Using the ITI’s famous pedagogical method, he looked at the questions of whether love is a type of friendship and whether it is something created in the soul. These articles aim to answer the question of the deepest understanding of what the Christian life is by addressing the Christian understanding of God and humanity; as well as the question of whether it is possible to have friendship with God.

At the end of the lecture, Cardinal Schönborn conveyed the good news from the Roman Curia. The Congregation for Catholic Education granted nihil obstat to our new faculty member, Dr. Simon Maria Kopf. Our Grand Chancellor conferred to Dr. Kopf the professional appointment of Associate Professor for Fundamental Theology.

The evening also marked the solemn opening and the Cardinal’s blessing of a newly established Faculty & Staff Common Room, followed by a delightful agape, during which students were able to meet His Eminence personally and casually chat with him.