The University of Leuven remains Catholic
Dear students in our international programmes,
Many of you have been surprised by the announcement in the press that the K.U. Leuven would drop catholic from its name. Several of you have expressed their concern to me about this. In the mean time the Faculty has received many messages from international partners expressing the same surprise and concern. With this mail I would like to give you some more information regarding the issue. In case you would get questions and reactions, please use this information to inform your contacts.
- At this very moment no decision has been taken yet. The decisive meeting is on Thursday morning. Then the Instituting Board of the University gathers, in which also the Flemish bishops are present. On Tuesday morning, the University Council will meet on the subject for a final discussion on the proposals. As Dean of our Faculty, I will be present at that meeting.
- Whatever the decision will be, the university will remain catholic. The discussion is not about being catholic or not, but about the way in which this being catholic will be expressed in communicating the profile of the university. In this discussion, our Faculty will present and defend a maximalist position, and confront minimalist positions with counterarguments.
- Whatever the decision will be, the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies will remain a canonical faculty. Our Faculty has separate agreements with the Congregation of Catholic Education, and this immediately through the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussel. Thus also in the future our Faculty will be able to deliver both ecclesial and state degrees – this will not be changing.
Please be assured that we share your concern, and that our Faculty will do its utmost best to weigh on the decisions to be taken. The statements in the press have been very tendentious and deceiving, arguing for the minimalist position (and even going further than that), but, as already mentioned, the decisions still all are to be taken. And in any case, the university will remain catholic.
I hope that this information may add clarity to the situation. Whenever I have more news I will communicate it immediately to you.
Sincerely,
Lieven Boeve
Dean
