Pontifical Lateran University awards Honoris Causa Doctorate to Historian of Havana

Cuban intellectual Eusebio Leal, historian of the city of Havana, received at the headquarters of the Apostolic Nunciature the accrediting diploma and the gown corresponding to his status as Doctor Honoris Causa in Legal Sciences and History of Law of the Pontifical Lateran University.

Handed over by Apostolic Nuncio Monsignor Giampiero Gloder, such a high teaching category was ratified with the approval of His Holiness Francis, since it is the one designated by St. John Paul II as the Pope's University, according to Havana Radio website.

The ceremony was attended by Roberto Morales Ojeda, vice president of the Council of Ministers of Cuba; Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs; Caridad Diego, head of the Office of Attention to Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba; Cardinal Juan de la Caridad Garcia, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Havana; Monsignor Emilio Aranguren Echeverria, president of the Catholic Bishops´ Conference of Cuba; among other figures of politics, government, culture and the Catholic Church in the country.

The Pontifical Lateran University has its headquarters in the Vatican Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, in Rome, Italy, and was founded in 1773, but it was in 1959 that was elevated to that condition by Pope John XXIII.

It has several faculties, such as the Sacred Theology, Philosophy, Canon Law, and Civil Law, and several institutes, including the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences, created in 1991.

(ACN)