23 December 2025
Bilbao Campus
Rector Juan José Etxeberria has used this festive season to ask the university community to let one word guide us more strongly than any other: peace. Quoting Pope Leo, he reminded us that peace is neither passive nor naive, and is not merely the absence of conflict; rather, it is an “urgent task” built through justice, dialogue, respect for differences, and care for the most vulnerable. "Peace is also built in the small things: in how we speak, how we listen, how we work together, how we resolve disagreements, and how we care for our neighbours," he said.
The rector noted that we live in a wounded world and, in doing so, referred to the 59 ongoing wars, the millions of forcibly displaced people, and the countries experiencing decline in at least one significant aspect of democracy. This is a situation to which the University of Deusto cannot remain indifferent. “Peace, in the words of Juan José Etxeberria, is at the heart of our mission: the university must be a place where diversity is not feared but embraced as a learning opportunity; where debate does not divide but opens new paths; where no one is invisible, and everyone matters.”
The Christmas message also carried a strong note of gratitude towards all those who make Deusto what it is every day: “Thank you for your dedication to the task of teaching and learning, for the rigour with which you seek the truth and share it, and for your ability to support human processes as well as academic ones.” According to the rector, gratitude in the Ignatian tradition is "a way of looking at reality: highlighting that every contribution, whether visible or discreet, large or small, keeps this common home alive and strengthens the spirit of the University of Deusto. For all these reasons, he reiterated that we should celebrate not only what has been achieved, but also who we are: “A community that learns, researches, works, and supports one another.”
To conclude, Juan José Etxeberria stated that, just as the birth of Jesus in the humility of Bethlehem shows us that greatness often arises from simplicity, so too must peace be born from concrete, persistent, and everyday actions. Because “peace is listening before judging, recognising the dignity of others, caring for those on the edge, and choosing the common good over immediate self-interest.”
Hence his final wish that this Christmas may bring us peace in our hearts and in our relationships; peace for our city, for our country, and for the world; and the courage to build it from here, from Deusto, with knowledge, justice, and humanity.
