Carles Pérez Testor, psychiatrist and professor at Blanquerna-URL, takes office as rector of the URL

Recoder explained that the Board of Trustees has trusted Pérez Testor to lead the URL: "We have done so with a double purpose: to guarantee institutional continuity and, at the same time, to begin a new stage, with renewed leadership and an eye on the future. Always faithful to the values ​​and identity that define us". The president pointed out that Pérez Testor knows this University and this project well: "His academic and management experience, his capacity for dialogue and his commitment to the values ​​that define us, make him the ideal person to lead this new stage. Today he assumes a demanding responsibility, which requires strategic vision, the ability to listen and the willingness to join efforts at a time that requires trust and cohesion".

Finally, Recoder added that "We are a University that advances with clarity and determination. We are a space where academic excellence goes hand in hand with social responsibility, where innovation is combined with the humanist tradition, and where sustainability and social equity are pillars of our daily action".

The rector Carles Pérez Testor also began his speech by remembering Josep A. Rom: “We are all aware that it was not time to elect a new rector and we took for granted that Dr. Josep Antoni Rom would continue to lead our university until 2030. (...) Josep has been a key professor for our university. (...) The avalanche of messages of condolence that we have received attests to how much people loved Josep. Because Josep was a man who loved and was loved.”

Pérez Testor has commented on his professional experience at URL, which began 34 years ago and in which he has carried out teaching, research and management tasks in several of its federated institutions. "I think that, from experience, I know our university quite well. Certainly, in the last 40 years, I have focused my work on the clinic, research and teaching". In this context, Pérez Testor has described the main functions from the perspective of a "doctor, psychiatrist, specialized in couple and family therapy". It is about "promoting hope", which "has a key role in the development of the student body, and we teachers have the responsibility to exercise it"; "the containment of anxieties, fears and anxieties", especially in view of the data that show an increase in the levels of discouragement, disorders, self-harm and suicide attempts among young people in Catalonia, "in the face of which the URL must continue to promote the well-being and above all the well-being of its members"; “the generation of love”, because “love is an extraordinary force that moves people to commit themselves with courage and generosity in the field of justice and peace”; and, finally, “promoting thought”, which “requires generating in the university an open, critical and active attitude, which starts from a reading of reality that seeks transformative and liberating results”.

Referring to the current situation of the URL, the rector highlighted the idea of ​​a university with social initiative and non-profit. And, to do so, he recalled “the 5,440 grants to students, for a total value of 19,846,197 euros, invested last year. And this is related to what we can read at the end of our Ideari: ‘we would like our Free University of Christian Inspiration, especially through teaching and research, to be a privileged means of humanization, culture and service to society’”.

Cardinal Joan Josep Omella stated that the rector's inauguration is not just an act, "but the visible expression of a entrusted mission aimed at guaranteeing the fidelity of the academic project and the identity that defines this University and all the institutions, university schools, faculties and centers that make it up." And he added, addressing Pérez Testor: "the function that you assume today requires intellectual leadership, a capacity for discernment, and a deep understanding of the meaning of the university as a community dedicated to the search for truth."

The Archbishop of Barcelona recalled that the URL finds its roots in the first universities created by the Church in the 12th and 13th centuries, and especially "receives the particular inspiration of Blessed Ramon Llull, philosopher, theologian, missionary, poet... pioneer of scientific thought. Who, driven by faith, wanted to create a rational and universal method that would allow demonstrating philosophical and theological truths that would be valid for Christians, Jews and Muslims. Ramon Llull conceived of knowledge as a tool (...) to improve the world and to dialogue and to convince the faithful of other religions with arguments, not with imposition".

During his speech, the President of the Parliament of Catalonia, Josep Rull, referred to the concepts that articulated the rector's speech, expressing that it may be "surprising that people speak with these terms and concepts: 'passion', 'love', 'vocation of service', 'humanism', 'solidarity', 'culture of dialogue', 'hope' (...) at a time when, worldwide, there are certain speeches and actions that are profoundly anti-scientific and profoundly dehumanizing, which try to propose a total amendment to what the rector has defended, what was the very genesis of the URL, this University of social initiative that responds very well to the heartbeat of the country".

Faced with this situation, Rull defended that "that is why it is so important that institutions of this high prestige, such as the Ramon Llull University, are capable of preserving and cultivating scientific expression, which to a large extent is what will allow hope to remain alive. Thank you, beyond this speech, for the coherence in the day-to-day action of the Ramon Llull University".

Perfil del Dr. Carles Pérez Testor

Nascut a Barcelona (1957). Llicenciat i Doctor en Medicina i Cirurgia per la UAB; especialista en Psiquiatria i Diplomat en Teologia per l’Institut de Teologia. Format com a psicoterapeuta individual i com a psicoterapeuta de Parella i Família a la Fundació Vidal i Barraquer (FVB), on ha dirigit el Centre Mèdic Psicològic i l’Institut Universitari de Salut Mental. Professor catedràtic de la URL. Ha impartit docència a la FVB, a l'Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià i a la Facultat de Psicologia, Ciències de l'Educació i de l'Esport (FPCEE) Blanquerna-URL, on va ser vicedegà de Recerca i Doctorat i cap del Departament de Psicologia. Professor visitant a la Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milà, Itàlia). Investigador dels àmbits de la violència familiar, els conflictes de parella i l’adopció. Membre del grup de recerca consolidat per la Generalitat de Catalunya: GR de Parella i Família (GRPF) de la FPCEE Blanquerna-URL. Membre, entre d'altres, de la Societat Espanyola de Psiquiatria, de l’Associació Internacional de Psicoanàlisis de Parella i Família i de la Societat Catalana de Teràpia Familiar. Actualment és president de l'Asociación Española para la I+D en Terapia Familiar. Va participar en la constitució de la Xarxa Temàtica sobre Violència Familiar i en la Xarxa Temàtica d'Adolescència i Diversitat sexual i actualment és el vicepresident de la Xarxa Europea REDIF (Réseau Européen des Instituts de Famille).