Dear students
We are about to experience a time of joy and festivity that will allow everyone to have more time to spend with their loved ones, away from the university lecture rooms for a while. I would therefore like to extend to you my sincerest wishes for a peaceful Christmas and a new year filled with hope.

Each one of you is precious to our university family: you are our ambassadors to the world! For this reason, I believe that each one of you must be involved and valorised by ensuring that all your talents are put to good use. Your involvement is particularly important because you are the bearers of the creativity needed in these times, which are so complex and unwilling to make use of your potential. It is up to you to dare to build the good future of our society and face the great challenges of our time.

How can we foster this leading role of yours? I am convinced that our university must increasingly see itself as a community, made alive above all by the involvement of every student. Indeed, the university is called upon to be a ‘place of experience’, where there is more than just transmission of knowledge. A place capable of grasping the signs of the times and educating women and men of value. Hence the mission of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - unique in terms of interdisciplinarity and national dimension with its five campuses - to offer an integral education, placing the person at the centre.

On the occasion of the inauguration of the studies, on 4 January 1925, addressing the graduates, Father Gemelli said: ‘You are the forge of our national life’ because the University is ‘an organism with the high and noble mission of preparing the leaders of tomorrow's social life’. These words are still valid, which at the same time give both us lecturers and you students a responsibility.

The year 2025, which coincides with the Jubilee, will be a year of hope. I wish you can live it with confidence and courage. I invite you to keep moving forward despite the difficulties and obstacles that you may encounter along the way as, remember, commitment and effort are essential to achieve your next milestones.

I wish you and your loved ones a meaningful Christmas.
Elena Beccalli