Speech delivered at the Inauguration of Courses and Graduation of 1943 by Professor Victorio Urciuolo

Abstract

The initiation of a new school year should be nothing more than the repetition of a common act in an educational institute, but like everything that is linked to the fundamental stages of life, it has at every opportunity the emotion of a new event that deeply shakes the most intimate part of our being. In these times in which we live, when the destiny of humanity appears dark and uncertain, when the very foundations of social organization are shaken, the repetition of this fact of normal life, takes on even more salient relief by pointing out a privilege of Providence for having kept our country away from the maelstrom. This distance in no way implies indifference and, in this sense, I am sure that at this moment, in the hearts of all of us, there blooms, especially, an emotional memory for those young people far from the classroom and for so many teachers and men of science removed from their noble tasks.