Frei Bento Domingues and Álvaro Laborinho Lúcio in a conversation about Citizenship, Religion and Culture

Frei Bento Domingues and Álvaro Laborinho Lúcio were in conversation yesterday with Isabel Estrada and António Marujo in the auditorium of the Institute of Social Sciences. In a crowded room, the two most recent honorary doctors from the University of Minho discussed issues such as Citizenship, Religion and Culture.

At first, Moisés de Lemos Martins, director of the CECS, presented the two thinkers, explaining the value of each in society. There followed a humorous and content conversation, in which silence and listening were appealed to.

Challenged by the director of CECS to begin his communication with a word, Laborinho Lúcio chose “commitment.” This was one of the concepts that shaped the whole conversation. For the former Minister of Justice, the idea of compromise seems essential, allowing us to retake the logic that we still have enough power to define our future. According to Laborinho Lúcio, “it’s time for less rhetoric and more action, more commitment, we need action, because if we do not act, what we have is not the risk, but the catastrophe”.

In turn, Friar Bento Domingues, a theologian from the periphery, considers that in communication, one of the most important things is the ability to listen and not the ability to speak. A major problem of the present time seems to him to be the inexistence of silence. Friar Bento Domingues, supported by Laborinho Lúcio, also defended the need to question himself and the others to question themselves as well.

The seminar, organized by the Communication and Society Research Centre with the support of the Sete Margens project, was held on the eve of the ceremony to confer the honorary doctorate degree of the University of Minho, Fr. Bento Domingues and Álvaro Laborinho Lúcio.

[Posted: 02-02-2019]