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One year after the death of João Lobo Antunes, friends, family members, lecturers and students, among others, gathered in the Auditorium of the Egas Moniz Building of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL) to celebrate the life and work of the Man who now gives his name to the Auditorium and to the Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM).
The ceremony was attended by former Presidents Ramalho Eanes, Jorge Sampaio and Aníbal Cavaco Silva, whose candidatures, in the case of the last two, João Lobo Antunes was the national representative, later serving on the Council of State for Cavaco Silva’s both terms of office.
It was a brief, intimate and emotional ceremony that brought together the host and Director of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL), Professor Fausto Pinto, Teresa Valido, student and President of the Students’ Association of the Faculty of Medicine (AEFML), Dr Carlos Neves Martins, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Northern Lisbon Hospital Centre (CHLN), Professor Maria do Carmo Fonseca, President of the Lisbon Academic Medical Centre (CAML) and of the Institute of Molecular Medicine of Lisbon (IMM), Professor António Cruz Serra, Rector of the University of Lisbon, and Walter Osswald, a MD, university professor and currently advisor of the Bioethics Institute of the Portuguese Catholic University (UCP).
On behalf of the students, Teresa Valido, President of the AEFML, evoked the collective feeling of longing for the times when the Professor introduced himself to those who had just arrived at the Faculty: "Sometime in September 2013, I sat there in this auditorium that now is named after him, to listen to the well-known neurosurgeon I had only seen on television". The Professor emphasized, as a primordial teaching, that "in life one should not make shortcuts but fight for things". A speech of recognition, in which the apprentice realizes that "the greatest prize" is the opportunity to see and listen to his master.
Due to the "convergence of strategic management opinions on the role of a Hospital such as Santa Maria in the medical education and training of specialists, who are pillars for the research and development of medicine in Portugal", Carlos Martins, Chairman of the CHLN, recalled the man of "enviable intelligence" who "for thirty years, left his mark on the Hospital and a school through neurosurgery students" considered to be the "best neurosurgery students" in the country.
This was followed by a moving and sharp speech by Maria do Carmo Fonseca, president of the IMM and a follower of the strategic guidance of João Lobo Antunes, founder of the Institute: "Everyone likes to criticize and speak ill, but few seek solutions. And only a tiny minority can change things around them. João Lobo Antunes was one of those persons". With natural pride, she stressed that "the three entities that make up the Lisbon Academic Medical Centre (CAML) decided to associate the name of João Lobo Antunes with the official designation of the IMM. In the final words of Carmo Fonseca, the mark of João Lobo Antunes remains timeless, because "there is a Faculty before and after him".
The doctor and professor was also instrumental in creating the conditions for the merger of the two largest universities in Lisbon, due to his action with the political decision makers, whom he alerted to the importance of creating this University", as the Rector of the University of Lisbon, Professor António Cruz Serra pointed out.
The last words were by Walter Osswald, a doctor, professor and distinguished adviser in the area of medical bioethics. He recalled his friend, "whom I met late in life, but in an intimate, limpid way, not in a nosy parker of feelings manner." Quoting Heiddeger, he described João in an "inadequate babbling, which only very incompletely will clarify the outlines of the great figure we are dealing with here".
Professor’s Osswald speech deserved a long ovation and he referred to Sôbolos Rios que vão, by João’s brother, António Lobo Antunes. "João died, we know, in serenity and acceptance. It is up to us to take off our sandals, for here we tread on sacred ground, illuminated by the burning bush, and let the echo of his voice continue in us”. This was followed by the unveiling of the plaque, with Maria do Céu Machado, a paediatrician, President of INFARMED and widow of João Lobo Antunes, leading the group of guests with the bright look of someone who sensed her husband through the words of his friends.
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Watch the video of the tribute to João Lobo Antunes here
