Pontifical Lateran University Grants Honorary Doctorate to Eusebio Leal

February 29, 2020

The Historian of the City of Havana, Eusebio Leal Spengler, received at the headquarters of the Apostolic Nunciature the diploma certifying his status as Doctor Honoris Causa in Legal Sciences and History of Law from the Pontifical Lateran University.

From the hands of Monsignor Giampiero Gloder, Apostolic Nuncio, this high academic distinction was ratified with the approval of His Holiness Francis, as it concerns what was called by Saint John Paul II the Pope's university.

Present at the ceremony were Roberto Morales Ojeda, Vice President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba; Anayansi Rodríguez Camejo, Vice Minister of Foreign Relations; Caridad Diego, Head of the Office for Attention to Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba; the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Cristóbal de la Habana Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez; Monsignor Emilio Aranguren Echeverría, president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba, among other personalities from politics, government, culture and the Catholic Church in our country.

In his Lectio Magistralis, titled: To Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino: the pastor and the man. In praise of priestly virtue, the outstanding intellectual thanked last November, upon learning of the award, the Conference of Bishops of Cuba for having proposed him and said he received "with humility the toga that you have conferred upon me."

The speech that Leal delivered from Havana reviews the evolution over centuries of the Catholic and apostolic Church in Cuba, from the encounter of two worlds in 1492 to the present day, and exalts the magnificent relations and bridges of dialogue established between the largest Christian Church and the Cuban State, according to Habana Radio on the occasion.

The conference also highlighted the relevant presence of the three pontiffs on the Island: John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis; and mentioned the warm reception given by Cuban authorities to the popes, especially by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro and General of the Army Raúl Castro.