The director of the National Service for Higher Education Pastoral Care (SNPES), Father Miguel Gonçalves Ferreira, a priest of the Society of Jesus, stated in an interview with the ECCLESIA Agency that it is necessary to be more proactive in disseminating University Pastoral Care, lamenting that many students only discover this proposal from the Catholic Church at the end of their course, during the blessing of graduates. For the Jesuit priest, this situation represents a failure of the proposal, as it means that something went wrong in communication during the years that students attended university.
Father Miguel Gonçalves Ferreira warned that University Pastoral Care cannot dispense with digital media and social networks, both for dissemination and for announcement and presence in these realities. He highlighted that younger people are more proactive and creative in the use of technologies and artificial intelligence, and that it is necessary to go further in adapting to new means of communication.
The University Pastoral Care of the Catholic Church is present in the Portuguese university world, both within universities and in spaces in the city, seeking to help each student make a journey of faith and encounter. According to the director of SNPES, today many students seek to resume during university the preparation for sacraments such as baptism, confirmation, or first communion, showing a renewed interest in faith in a more unencumbered way.
SNPES coordinates the University Pastoral Care realities in the various dioceses of the country, which vary significantly between major urban centers and smaller cities. Among the highlighted activities are the University Centers of the Society of Jesus, which celebrate 50 years, and Missão País, which has grown in size and support, reaching more universities and realities in the interior. The National Meeting of Higher Education Pastoral Care is scheduled for March 2027 in Fátima.
