Reflections on a Private Audience with Pope Francis
President Sullivan shared her reflections on meeting His Holiness Pope Francis in Rome in this write-up in Tablet UK:
“GRANT ME, O Lord, the grace to be able to take a joke, to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others ...” When the president of Santa Clara University, Julie Sullivan, had a private audience with Pope Francis last month, she hadn’t been expecting to find herself reading aloud a passage from St Thomas More’s Prayer for Good Humour.
“Pope Francis is a joyful person who exudes an extraordinary light and magnetic human connection,” Dr Sullivan, the first layperson and first woman president in the university’s 171-year history, told us. “He said that too often education is about ‘filling the head’. It needs to be about young adults finding ‘harmony’ between the head, the heart and the hands.” As he was talking, Francis touched each in turn. “He’s a very expressive person,” she said.
Dr Sullivan had been leading a delegation from Santa Clara – sitting in the heart of Silicon Valley – and its renowned Jesuit School of Theology to check in with various senior Vatican and Jesuit leaders. Before she left, Pope Francis signed a copy of the university’s strategic plan. He told her he was happy to “sign anything that is not a cheque”.