(translated from Portuguese by Cerqueira de Souza)*

Your Excellency,

I bring to your knowledge the fact that the Catholic University in Viseu has decided to abruptly change the orientation of the School of Architecture , heeding to the lobby groups that endorse modernism as the only acceptable architecture for our time.

If such attempt should triumph it will destroy the only school of architecture in Portugal that had adopted a path according to the doctrine of HH the Pope, and that offers an alternative to the cultural globalization that has been destroying the identities of all the peoples of the world since the beginning of the 20 th century, to the great advantage of all multinational corporations…

Your school is considered to be a reference and an example by some of the best contemporary architects, though their «non-conformism» displeases the main stream establishment among our architects.

I finish by asking your enlightened intervention to prevent the destruction of the School of Viseu and its work, to the great benefit of our national culture and identity.

Dom Duarte de Bragança

{*underlined by the translator}