VATICAN -The crypt of the Pontifical Missionary College of St. Peter’s was blessed by the Prefect of the Missionary Dicastery at the end of the restoration

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - With great joy the Pontifical Missionary College of St. Peter welcomed the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, His Exc. Mgr. Fernando Filoni, in the afternoon on October 13, for the inauguration of the academic year 2011-2012. It was also his first visit to the College after assuming the esteemed office of the Congregation. As reported to Fides by the Rector of the College, Fr. Thomas Peringalloor, SVD, the event provided an opportunity for the blessing of the renovated crypt, which was blessed and dedicated to "Mater Sedes Sapientiae" by the Prefect. It was a very meaningful liturgy, participated by the entire community, together with a host of personalities from Propaganda Fide and the superiors of the various Colleges under the patronage of the Congregation.
This year the College hosts 169 student priests from 45 countries: 101 are African, while 65 are from Asia, 2 from Latin America and 1 from Oceania. There had never been a major repair of the College ever since it began in 1946. Thanks to the generous intervention of the Domus Missionalis, supported by the Pontifical Mission Societies and in particular by the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith. The College is undergoing a period of an important major face lift in the last three years. Next year the last part of the important works, the restructuring of the last wing of the College will begin. As a result, there will be no new student priests in the coming academic year. It is very important that the work continues in spite of such constraints for a year, as the "Casa Nuova" is just a shadow of the past.
Of the 169 student priests accommodated at the Pontifical College of St. Peter, 93 are students of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, 39 of them attending the Faculty of Canon Law. Together with the academic pursuits, they also endeavor to deepen and enrich their world/Church vision through a healthy, mutual exchange of their experiences and aspirations of their own local Churches and nations. (TP/SL) (Agenzia Fides 14/10/2011)