S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 The Pontifical Catholic University in Campinas (PUC-Campinas), S\u00e3o Paulo entered into an educational knowledge-sharing agreement last week with Lebanon\u2019s Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (PUC), PUC-Campinas said.<\/p>\n
PUC-Campinas president Germano Rigacci J\u00fanior, PhD, was quoted on the university\u2019s website that the agreement will enable professor and student exchange in teaching, research and extension work.<\/p>\n
Rigacci met with his USEK counterpart, priest and professor Georges Hobeika, to sign the agreement, in the presence of archbishop Airton Santos, the chancellor of PUC-Campinas. Hobeika visited the PUC-Campinas campus with USEK\u2019s Latin America Studies and Cultures Center (LASCC) director Roberto Khatlab and provost for Cultural Affairs Hoda Nehme.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough the LASCC, USEK has been building a bridge of contacts and academic exchange with Latin America,\u201d Khatlab told ANBA, noting that USEK already sustained agreements with PUC in Goi\u00e1s and S\u00e3o Paulo, and with the Federal University of Paran\u00e1 (UFPR).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is for professors and students to engage in exchange and for both regions to become better acquainted and to share experiences. The human connection stemming from immigration is already there, and we wish to enhance it in science as well,\u201d Khatlab said.<\/p>\n
At PUC-Campinas, Hobeika, Khatlab and Nehme also joined a colloquium on \u201cReligion, Justice and Peace.\u201d The university said Nehme and Hobeika addressed the Middle East\u2019s political and religious scenario. Hobeika discussed \u201cChristians in the East, Between Planned Persecution and the Indifference of the Global System.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese Christians have the right to be respected and to be protected by the international community. Unfortunately, we are abandoned. We\u00a0hope that everything will change for the better. We need that, because everybody in this Orient needs to breathe, to breathe democracy, to breathe freedom of conscience, to breathe liberty freedom in all fields, like in Europe, like in USA, everywhere in the world,\u201d Hobeika told PUC-Campinas TV.<\/p>\n
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n