The University of Barcelona awards the Gold Medal to Hilari Raguer
The Montserrat monk and historian Hilari Raguer talked, during the event in which was awarded the Gold Medal of the University of Barcelona, about his experiences as university student in the forties, regarding both academic and anti-Francoist activities.
The Montserrat monk and historian Hilari Raguer talked, during the event in which was awarded the Gold Medal of the University of Barcelona, about his experiences as university student in the forties, regarding both academic and anti-Francoist activities.
In a speech in which he combined old anecdotes and memories from the Franco regime repression, Raguer mentioned lecturers such as Enrique Luño, Josep Maria Pi i Sunyer, Octavio Pérez-Vitoria, Luis García de Valdeavellano and Lluc Beltran, among others. He talked about a magistral lecture by Lluc Beltran about Francoʼs economic policies and which “out of caution” he had to teach at a studentʼs house. “Many years have passed, but I could still recall the lines of that conference: it defined the economic policies of Franco like Keynes and Pancho Villa; inflation but happy and without control”.
Among his books on contemporary history there are La Unió Democràtica de Catalunya i el seu temps (1931-39) (1975), Divendres de passió. Vida i mort de Manuel Carrasco i Formiguera (1984), El general Batet (1994), Gaudeamus igitur. Notes per a una història del Grup Torras i Bages (1999), Carrasco i Formiguera. Un cristiano nacionalista (1890-1938) (2002), La pólvora y el incienso (La Iglesia y la Guerra Civil) (2001) and Ser independentista no és cap pecat (Claret, 2012). He collaborated in the history of the Second Vatican Council, directed by Giuseppe Alberigo. Regarding the fields of liturgical and biblical spirituality he published the works Para comprender los salmos (1996, with four Spanish Editions and translated into Italian, Portuguese and Brazilian) and Llegir avui lʼApocalipsi (1997)
The last Gold Medal given by the University of Barcelona was for the Philosopher Emilio Lledó, last September. Previous to that one, gold medals were awarded to the expert on comparative psychology Nicholas J. Mackintosh (2015), Professor of Geology Carmina Virgili (2011), and to the Primatologist and Ethologist Jordi Sabater Pi and the Writer, Journalist and Literary Critic Baltasar Porcel in 2009. The prestigious Doctor and Catalan pacifist Moisès Broggi and the President of the publishing house Vicens Vives Roser Rahola were also awarded the Gold Medal in 2008. The Gold Medal honors natural or juridical people who have been distinguished for their services given to the University of Barcelona, or have given eminent and extraordinary services to society in the political, social, economic, cultural or scientific fields.