Athenaeum?

Another day of classes. I finish handing out today’s requests from the library and; depending on how many requests I had, and how much breakfast I ate, I stroll or power-walk along a short path through the woods. Here in Rome we all study at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum right in front of our center. Regina Apostolorum is Latin for Queen of the Apostles but I figure at least one of you wonders what an Athenaeum is. Let me give you a quick explanation and then explain our athenaeum.

“Athenaeum” comes from a school in ancient Rome for the study of the arts but the Church adapted this name for an institute of a certain level. The Vatican grants the title “Pontifical” to four levels of institutions: institutes, faculties, athenaeums, and universities.

• A faculty is just what you and I would think of at any university.
• An institute
• A pontifical university has to have 3 ecclesial faculties, a certain number of students, longevity, and an intellectual reputation based on published articles and having eminent professors.
• From the time a second faculty is opened until it is a full university, it is an athenaeum.

Now for a little history: we started back in 1993 and got definitive canonical status back in 2004. We started with Philosophy and Theology but then added the world’s first – and still only – faculty of bioethics to confront the problems of today. We have the main requirements for becoming a Pontifical University but we have to work on some of minor things and an official decree.

These things take time, for instance the Salesians got their decree from the Vatican in 1940 but were not a University until 1973; we got the equivalent decree in 2004. Hopefully, in a few years we will be able to say Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum.