Prof. Beccalli: Sacred Heart University aims for holistic education

By Tiziana Campisi

A “very cordial and promising” meeting was how Elena Beccalli, Rector of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, described her audience with Pope Francis on Monday.

She has served in her role since July 1, after the Board of Directors appointed her to a 4-year term, making her the first woman to hold this position in the University's history.

A graduate in Economics and Commerce from the Milan campus, the 51-year-old is a full professor of Financial Intermediaries Economics in the Faculty of Banking, Financial, and Insurance Sciences, where she has served as dean since 2014.

During their audience, she told Vatican News, Pope Francis emphasized the need to “educate young people with the mind, heart, and hands” and highlighted the important role of educators, adding a reminder “to never lose [her] sense of humor.”

Among the various topics discussed during the meeting, she said, was the issue of the educational emergency.

Professor Beccalli expressed gratitude to the Pope for his constant support of the university and also outlined the multiple projects that the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart aims to pursue across its five campuses in Milan, Brescia, Piacenza, Cremona, and Rome.

Q: In today’s multicultural society, marked by a crisis of values and where technological development offers new opportunities while also posing ethical questions, what contribution does the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart hope to make?

Prof. Beccalli: The Catholic University of the Sacred Heart aims to be, first and foremost, a place of encounter and dialogue between different cultures and disciplines. Therefore, fostering dialogue, openness, and interdisciplinarity is one of the main characteristics that define the action and mission of the Catholic University today.

Another aspect is providing holistic education, rigorously and with quality, across the disciplines offered by the twelve faculties that make up our University, while also allowing students to grow as individuals.

Holistic education must not overlook any dimension, including the spiritual one, which we, as a Catholic University, are called to promote. I believe that this dialogue and holistic education can be very beneficial for personal and professional growth, as they offer an openness and solidity that will allow graduates to bring the values experienced at the university into their daily lives.

Q: In the face of the current educational emergency involving schools, families, and society, what is the University's commitment?

The University’s commitment is strong and twofold. On the one hand, we can contribute by welcoming young people who are currently distant from university paths, often due to economic reasons.

This openness is realized through scholarships to reach those who are currently on the margins. For example, I think of children born in Italy to foreign parents who might not have the means to access higher education, and whom we would like to support with significant programs, including financial ones.

The second contribution that the University can make is to train teachers and school sector professionals to counter this exclusion from the educational system. This is a fundamental contribution because we have the tools from various disciplines—psychology, education sciences, and all the humanistic knowledge cultivated at the Catholic University—that can serve as the strongest antidote to these problems.

Q: No one is saved alone; we can only be saved together, writes Pope Francis in the encyclical letter Fratelli tutti, where he emphasizes the need for mutual help between countries and calls for fostering a culture of encounter. You carry out international projects and focus on partnerships in the poorest areas of the planet, especially in the Mediterranean region and Africa. What specific goals are you aiming for?

The Catholic University of the Sacred Heart must be a university open to the world. There are various ways to interpret this internationalization of our university.

One is the more traditional approach of opening ourselves to agreements and partnerships with foreign universities to allow our students to obtain, for example, a double degree with foreign institutions and to also welcome students from other countries to our campuses.

The second, which I hold particularly dear, is the idea of opening ourselves to the poorest areas of the world, especially Africa. We are considering an Africa Plan for the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.

We already carry out many initiatives with African countries in the health and economic education sectors, but what I believe is important is to create synergies between these initiatives to contribute to development in these countries.

We can have a greater impact if the knowledge we cultivate is broader and can integrate to benefit these areas. Today, distance learning is easier thanks to technology.

It is one of the goals of my mandate, because by bringing various disciplines together, we can make a positive impact in these poorer areas, from which we also have much to learn.