On 13 October 1967, the decree Lusitanorum Nobilissima Gens, issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education (the Ponti cal congregation of the Roman Curia responsible for educational institutions), gave rise to the great scienti c and pedagogical adventure represented by Universidade Católica Portuguesa. The decision to establish a Catholic university in Portugal – as in other countries of Europe and beyond – had been made by the Portuguese bishops two years earlier. In 1967, the project was made o cial and a starting point was chosen in the Faculty of Philosophy in Braga, with the mandate to extend its academic activity as soon as possible to Lisbon. On November 1st, in the city of Braga, in the presence of the national education minister and cardinals Cerejeira and Garrone, the academic year was solemnly inaugurated. The following year, the Faculty of Theology was established. In 1971, the Portuguese State o cially recognised Universidade Católica Portuguesa as a legal entity of public utility with the aim, among others, of “providing the teaching of higher education on a par with the other Portuguese universities” (Decree-Law no. 307/71). In 1972, the Faculty of Human Sciences joined the Faculties of Philosophy and Theology. With this, the Lisbon campus was born, on a site located next to the University neighbourhood of the city. 1972 also saw the naming of the rst Rector, Father José Bacelar e Oliveira, S.J., a philosopher and Jesuit, who guided the university for twenty years, in a “prudent and progressive gradualness,” as he liked to describe it, but also without fear of taking risks, either in scienti c innovation (at the start of the 70s, for example, the Catholic University started the rst management course in the country), or in service to Portugal. After the base in Lisbon and the pole in Braga, the poles of Porto (1978) and Viseu (1980) were created, giving the Universidade Católica prominence as the most wide-ranging university project in the country.
Anchored in a code of Christian and humanist values, Católica has, over fty years, made its mark on Portuguese society as an academic institution of reference, for the excellence of its teaching, the quality and spirit of its research, and for maximising the potential of talent in line with the most critical international standards. Católica was, in fact, a pioneer of internationalisation, investing in strategic alliances and favouring the circulation of people and of knowledge. In addition to this, the institution has helped in the construction of other Catholic universities in the Portuguese-speaking world: in 1995, together with the Diocese of Macau, it created the Instituto Interuniversitário de Macau, embryo of the future Universidade de São José; in 1996, it collaborated with the Episcopal Conference of Mozambique in the creation of Universidade Católica de Moçambique; and, in 1999, it provided the same collaboration to the Angolan Episcopal Conference for the establishment of Universidade Católica de Angola.
Previous Rectors of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa include: D. José da Cruz Policarpo; Father Manuel Isidro Alves; Professor Manuel Braga da Cruz; Professor Maria da Glória Garcia. Previous High Chancellors include: Cardinal Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira; Cardinal António Ribeiro; Cardinal José da Cruz Policarpo. The current High Chancellor is Cardinal Manuel Clemente and the Rector is Professor Isabel Capeloa Gil. In her speech on taking o ce (October 2016), Isabel Capeloa Gil used a metaphor relating to online computing to describe her current challenges, saying that universities, which historically were established dependent on cathedrals, now have their eye on “the cloud”, because this “o ers a space without limits, without walls, that moves in a global ecosystem, embracing di erent geographies, and social ecologies.” The adventure gains strength and continues.
