Pope appoints Archbishop Amarante as new Rector of Lateran University

By Edoardo Giribaldi

Pope Francis on Tuesday appointed Fr. Alfonso V. Amarante as the new Rector Magnificus of the Pontifical Lateran University, granting him the title Archbishop of the titular see of Sorres.

A laborious and hopeful task

Archbishop Amarante, hitherto Dean of the Pontifical Higher Institute of Moral Theology ad instar Facultatis (Accademia Alfonsiana), was chosen by Pope Francis to succeed Professor Vincenzo Buonomo, who in turn was appointed General Councilor of Vatican City State.

In a letter to the new Rector, Pope Francis illustrated the “laborious and hopeful task so well begun” by Professor Buonomo to “make the Lateran University more robust and agile in order to better honor its first task: to proclaim the truth and joy of the Gospel through study, reflection and academic work.”

Didactic and administrative planning

To support Archbishop Amarante “in the administrative and economic management,” but also “in the elaboration of a development plan that will make the Lateran University a protagonist in the ecclesiastical and civil university system,” the Holy Father also announced the appointment of a Managing Director.

The Pope exhorted the new Rector to involve the various university bodies in “didactic and administrative planning,” paying attention to the “signs of the times” and “treasuring the collaboration with the Pontifical Institutes included ad instar Facultatis in the University.”

Lateran University and Apostolic See

Archbishop Amarante will also be supported by the Superior Council of Coordination, established by Pope Francis himself.

The Superior Council, “in addition to the figures already foreseen,” will see the presence of “other qualified exponents” of both “the Roman Curia and the university world” in order to “express institutionally the peculiar link between the Lateran University and the Apostolic See.”

"The voice of the entire University"

Pope Francis noted, among the tasks the new Rector will be called upon to face, “the inclusion of the Lateran University” in the process of reorganization "of the Roman Pontifical Academic Institutions,” desired by the Holy Father and “coordinated by the Dicastery for Culture and Education.”

The Pope concluded his letter by blessing the new Rector and wishing him the accompaniment of the Blessed Virgin Mary, “Salus Populi Romani.”