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“Another Time. A different View”

When I looked at the history of the Portuguese Catholic University to include in it my history with the Portuguese Catholic University I was quite surprised to find out that I arrived there earlier in the beginning of the university’s life than I had believed possible.

The official recognition of the Portuguese Catholic University by the State dates from 1972, the year when I left for England with the family to attend York University.

We arrived back in 1974, three days before the Revolution and, three years after happy circumstances that were not of my doing, I commenced my meeting with the University that we still consider, my husband and I, a part of our lives. It is our home. Maybe mine more than his since, due to life’s vagaries, I ended up by staying here longer.

For instance, during his ten years as Prime Minister I was always here. As you may presume, he only came here during those ten years when he was invited... and when he could accept the invitation.

I was here with Chancellors Prof. Bacelar, Dom José Policarpo, Prof. Isidro Alves, and with Prof. Braga da Cruz.

Dear me, I was here with everybody! Does this make a relic of me?

It does at least mean that I am someone who can share with you memories of events that you would never believe could have happened.

As you may believe, the years subsequent to the 25th of April were not very happy.

Nor are they now, I know, but there was a little more exoticism in those days.

A world without computers either in the hands of the lecturers or in those of the students. No cell phones, no Internet, can you imagine such a barbaric age?!!!

Make an effort.

When I arrived here to teach Portuguese Language and Culture of the then called Propaedeutic Year and the subjects of Philosophy and Theology, the only existing building was this one where we are now, but a lot less elaborate in its interior.

Surrounding us there were empty fields, with no buildings or roads. I taught classes in the 3rd floor and it was always without the least surprise that we watched, as if in a country village, the planting, the undulating crops and, by the time of the final exams, the harvest. On lucky days we even saw flocks of sheep with their shepherds and watch dogs.

I came by bus from Infante Santo Avenue (I still live in the same place today) and from Santa Maria Hospital I walked to the University. It seemed that I left behind the city and was entering a rural world with seasonal life cycles, which I adored.

When I crossed through the University’s gate – the same one I crossed today – a world of knowledge opened up, still very intimate and family like.

Recently arrived from an English University I found in Portugal, surprisingly and pleasing, the world that I had left behind and that I did not know existed in my country. An out of doors University with the quietude, the peace and the silence of a British campus.

I stated at the beginning that these were the memories of such an ancient history that the times seemed barbaric. Maybe you did not believe they were as ancient as all that, since I am alive and not as decrepit as all that, here in front of you …

At the time there was quite a lot of disturbance in the university environment and the Catholic University appeared as an oasis where normal classes continued, in peace and quiet, with professors endeavouring to teach and students endeavouring to learn.

There were few of us and the climate, more than quiet and peaceful, was very homely.

At the time, I was guided through the midst of the house by an austere and amiable Franciscan whom I familiarly called Father Montes. Father Montes knew where everything was located, where the classes and the rooms were. He was the owner, let us say, of the course in Philosophy.

He even knew where the chalk was and the duster with which we cleaned our desk and the chair if, by any chance, we wished to sit down without our clothes becoming all chalky.

There were no cleaning staff and the lecturers willingly carried out what was required in order that the classes performed well. And so they did, very well, even without computers.

Father Montes, who is a friendly memory of those days in the “Católica”, is Dom António Montes Moreira, Bishop of Bragança, who will be replaced on 2 October by Dom José Cordeiro, the youngest Portuguese bishop (44 years old) who graduated in Theology and Philosophy in Porto. If he had attended the Catholic University here he would have been a student of mine.

Another colleague I recall with nostalgia (he left us in 2010) is Prof. Costa Freitas, a very present figure in the Philosophy course and a great Master for many generations of philosophers in this house. We took the oral examinations jointly and I learnt a lot from his wisdom.

These are just some brief jottings of my first years in this house that I consider mine and that will also be yours during the next years, at a very different time from that which I now recall.

But behind time, time comes along and, since I stayed here until 2008, I obviously witnessed many changes, not just physical but also in its operation.

The University grew in wisdom and in buildings, whilst surrounding it space became smaller and such that no recollection remains of that expanse of rural views that I found when I arrived here in the seventies of last century.

In the beginning of the eighties I was asked to also lecture Portuguese Language and Culture to the students of the Propaedeutic Year in Law, which at time was included in the Faculty of Human Sciences.

Classes were separate then – Philosophy and Theology in the morning, in the building’s left wing – which made my life in the University, to my great delight, a lot more intense.

In addition to more classes, there were also many more students, with very different interests, opinions and ways of life.

I would adapt the works that we were studying to the school class in front of me, and it was a time of great human enrichment for me. I hope so too for the students. This is a permanent hope of all teachers and I believe that whoever loses this hope should cease teaching.

These were the golden days of the Law School in the Catholic University.

After the 25th of April 1974, the Law Faculties had been the hardest hit targets by the derangement subsequent to the revolution and the parents of children who really wanted to learn and graduate well knew that they could guarantee it here.

We continued having splendid teachers, driven to really work and this fame, and reality, brought out the boom in this course of study in those still very disorderly years in the State Universities.

There were aptitude tests and the number of candidates reached more than seven hundred for little more than one hundred and fifty vacancies.

In those days I prepared and corrected the Portuguese texts, which was one of the subjects demanded in the entrance examination.

With the adaptation of the new teaching realities, the next step was to bring together, in the Propaedeutic Year, the courses of Philosophy, Theology and Law in the same technical classes, which was another advance in the interest and dynamics of our meetings, since the differing points of view could already be directly discussed.

I always insisted that, even in theoretical classes, space should be given to students’ opinions. In Portuguese Language and Culture the Lecturer was not seen, during all that time – two hour classes - speaking on his own. And although there were many of us, we were always able to orderly exchange points of view to everybody’s advantage.

In the nineties, the University decided that it did not have the required conditions to continue with the entrance preparatory course and the Propaedeutic Year was thus finished. It was at that time that I was invited for a further activity, also connected to Portuguese language, but a lot different. The Erasmus programme was being launched and I was challenged to teach, not Portuguese, but foreign students.

This was a new stage in my personal enrichment.

Let us say that this history of an encounter that lasted for years, with great advantages for both sides, was much to be measured by GNH.

But what is this GNH affair?

Have you heard of that country that decided to introduce a measure of happiness for its people? That country is tiny Bhutan, next door to the Himalayas. In the seventies, a young 18 year old king had the idea that wealth could after all not be everything in life. Why not then also measure the people’s happiness?

It sounded a good idea to me, mainly because in times such as we live today, in which we have to change our lives and think more about what we are than about what we have. But in the end Bhutan is not a very good example because the King (who is no longer the same one) is very wealthy and the people not so much so... Their GNH, their Gross National Happiness, would thus certainly be very difficult to achieve! The proverbial Father Thomas used to say “Do what I say, but not what I practice!”

But what I wanted to let you know is that my GNH in the Portuguese Catholic University was extremely high.

I worked for more than three decades in this house, never really looking at the salary schedule. And I was very happy.

When I took up teaching Portuguese to foreigners, in the Erasmus programme, it was as if I had started travelling for free within the walls of the classroom.

I had to change signals to the teaching of Portuguese and Portuguese culture to foreigners and I was very pleased and happy and to do so.

Young people from so many countries, first from Europe and later, from all over the world, opened me up to new horizons of opportunities to teach differently students that, inevitably were going to learn differently.

We visited museums and palaces, we gave parties in the classrooms with music and food from the countries represented, I took them home to tea for them to learn what was the normal home of a normal Portuguese family.

It was a great party. But take care, they really learnt how to speak and write in Portuguese, each one in line with his possibilities. An Italian probably more than a Russian or a Pole.

But there was certain unforeseeability in the results, much depending upon each one’s personal motivations. I had a student from Iceland who had a girlfriend from the Alentejo. He spent his holidays in her Alentejo village and we had very interesting conversations, comparing life in an Alentejo village with that in Iceland. There were many different opinions in class as to man’s capacity to adapt, which is great, mainly when one is young, and in such diverse circumstances.

I don’t know how the love story ended but the Icelander had fantastically good results in Portuguese...

In 2006 there was a big change in my life – on 9 March my husband took office as President of the Republic – which influenced my relationship with this house.

I led the Erasmus course I was taking until its end (it never entered my head to give it up in the middle of the school year), but during those months I understood it would be difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile my life as a teacher with that of the President’s wife, who is much called upon. I could do one thing or another. Trying to join the two would be to leave loose ends on both sides, and this would not be like me.

Once again the Catholic University and I proved we had a solid relationship.

They proposed that I should, until retirement, lecture in classes or conferences on themes covering our literature, at my choice.

I immediately accepted and, with great joy, I returned to the house that had always been mine with a topic that had always been dear to me: Houses of Letters.

In that series, I chose to approach the theme of the relevance of the house in three of our great writers.

As such I returned to the conviviality, which is so pleasing to me, with a student assembly and much more, that was ready to listen to my ramblings about the relationship of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen with the sea – My Home is the Sea – of Agustina Bessa-Luís with the exterior and interior landscape of the River Douro – Sibila’s Home – and the passion of Cesário Verde for the city – My home is Lisbon.

I have to confess that these three incursions after the daily classes have already been carried out with the support of information technology. New age, new technology.

These conferences and the fact of my being here today show that the Portuguese Catholic University knows it can count on me and that I am always very pleased to answer its calls.

My memories have nothing in common with yours, when you may want to share them a few years hence.

Times are different, the university is changed, and so has the world. But I hope that, when many years have gone by someone asks you about your attendance in the Portuguese Catholic University, you may be able to tell them what I am saying to you today:

There are many stories I can tell you about the university where I studied. But maybe what I can say that is most important is that, with good and bad moments, as in all places, it is today still a house about which I keep many wonderful memories.