Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
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Bururi (Fides News Agency) - After two years of opening the University of the Diocese of Bururi, the official state approval of the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research has taken place in these days. The name of the University "Laudato Sì - Le Palmier" was chosen because it is an institute that includes Faculties of Social and Technological Sciences, particularly dedicated to environmental protection, but also to peace and development.
"The initiative to have our own universitygoes back to the Bishop of Bururi, Salvator Niciteretse," Father Emile Ndayizigiye, a diocesan priest from Bururi who is currently doing a PhD in the Social Doctrine of the Church at the Lateran University in Rome, told Fides. "The bishop has always been very attentive to young people and since universities in Burundi are only found in the big cities, he wanted to open one in the south of the country, that would be accessible indiscriminately to all, especially to returnees from Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The site is located on the plateau of Lake Tanganyika, in the town of Romonge, one of the three provinces of the Diocese of Bururi, along with Makamba and the Bururi of the same name."
The Catholic clergyman points out that Romonge is only an hour's drive from Buta, where a total of 40 seminarians were murdered in 1997 for refusing to divide along ethnic lines between Huti and Tutsi, becoming known as "martyrs of fraternity in Burundi" (see Fides 24/7/2019)
"The goal is to create a 'University as a place of peace,' in line with Pope Francis' encyclical 'Fratelli tutti,' where the example of the martyrs of Buta is formative," the priest concluded.
Burundi is a country with a young population, where 50 percent of the inhabitants are under 30 years old.
(AP) (Fides News Agency 11/10/2023)
