From February 20 to 23, 2025, around forty alumnae and alumni as well as KAAD partners came together for a retreat at the guest house of the Latin American Episcopal Council (Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano, CELAM) in Bogota. Dr. Nora Kalbarczyk, KAAD Secretary General, Dr. Thomas Krüggeler, Head of the Latin America Department, and Renate Flügel, Head of the Latin America Department, came from Bonn. The event was opened by Dr. Luis Fernando Múnera Congote SJ, Rector of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, with a lecture on the challenges facing Catholic universities in Latin America ("Desafíos y futuro de las universidades católicas en América Latina"). Nora Kalbarczyk spoke about the latest developments at KAAD, the relevance of our work and the objective of a holistic development of our funding work. She also addressed the great importance of intellectual, academic and intercultural exchange, which is typical of the KAAD and characterizes its networks.
On the following day, Colombian KAAD alumnus Prof. Dr. Carlos Miguel Gómez Rincón, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the Universidad del Rosario in Bogota, outlined the various challenges facing Latin American universities in the current transformation, be it in relation to fundamental values and principles, the problem of the market-based usability of knowledge or with regard to questions of funding ("Dimensiones de la crisis de la universidad hoy. Elementos para la reflexión").
In working groups, the participants then delved deeper into the aspects outlined in the presentation and explored the contribution made by the KAAD scholarship programs in Latin America and what further collaborations could be entered into. The various areas in which the KAAD Adveniat scholarships should be used to support the respective local church were also discussed. It emerged that in addition to the training of pastoral workers, there is a need - across all countries - to support the church in its fight for peace and justice. In some regions from which the state has withdrawn and crime, violence and conflicts prevail, it is the church structures that still provide support. The participants in the seminar also included precisely those people who are working locally for peace, justice and the protection of particularly vulnerable groups.
On the last day of the seminar, the discussion continued with a focus on pastoral training. Fr. Fabio Antunes presented the Centro Bíblico Teológico Pastoral para América Latina y el Caribe (CEBITAL) of the Council of Latin American Bishops' Conferences and the Caribbean (CELAM) and highlighted the particular importance of training the laity. Latin America, he emphasized, is a kind of laboratory for synodality worldwide.
The event was also special for another reason:
As part of the conference, those present bid farewell to Dr. Thomas Krüggeler, Head of the Latin America Division for many years, who will retire in April after 23 years at KAAD. The participants of the conference came together with numerous alumni from Bogota for a festive dinner, at which Thomas Krüggeler was bid a very fond farewell and the shared experiences and encounters with him were looked back on.
In the context of the conference, great thanks were also expressed to the Colombian KAAD alumnus Prof. Dr. Helmuth Gallego Sánchez: The lawyer donated the so-called "Hermann Weber Scholarship" in 2021 on the occasion of the retirement of former KAAD Secretary General Dr. Hermann Weber. Helmuth Gallego, who has been blind since childhood, is an active member of the KAAD alumni network in Latin America, was chairman of the ASEKAAD Colombia alumni group and has been financially involved in the development of computer software for visually impaired people for many years. The scholarship will be awarded annually until 2031 to an outstanding scholarship holder for a period of six to twelve months. The KAAD management was able to thank the scholarship holders personally for this extremely generous donation with a basket full of specialties from Germany.
The seminar ended with a mass celebrated by the two KAAD alumni P. Ferney Lópezand P. Dr. Carlos Man Ching SJ in the impressive Catedrál de Sal de Zipaquirá.
