Start of year two of the Sophia University Institute
Start of year two of the Sophia University Institute
02/11/2009
 The second academic year of the Sophia University Institute has begun, with 35 teachers and 63 students from 24 different countries studying the Masters degree in “Foundations and perspectives of a culture of unity.” Based at the little town of Loppiano, twenty kilometres from Florence, the university was one of Chiara Lubich’s most ardent desires.
Piero Coda, theologian and president of the institute, spoke of the campus as a “place of dialogue where all are welcome to offer their research into wisdom and the development of knowledge, at the service of people and society… a “university-community” founded on an explicit pact of fraternity between teachers and students.” Another feature of the campus, highlighted by Gerard Rossé in his inaugural address, is the “close alliance of study and life”.
The curriculum was recently approved by the Congregation for Catholic Education, and was described by its prefect Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski as “an original and innovative project.” This news was given by Maria Voce, president of the Focolare and Vice Chancellor: she compared the institute to a fountain where “students come to imbibe the love of God that is expressed here in the cultural forms of study and research.”
The Archbishop of Florence, Giuseppe Betori, the Chancellor, described it as “a unitary programme of life, study and research”, and emphasised the “importance given to its interdisciplinary nature.” It is important to bring various of forms of knowledge together, he explained, because “if the human sciences remain closed to metaphysics and prejudiced against theological thought, there could be serious consequences for the development of peoples, human beings thus being deprived of some fundamental dimensions.”
At the end of the inauguration ceremony the students, accompanied by Gen Verde, sang the university song which describes Sophia as “a home for everyone”, and mass was celebrated in the Church of Maria Theotokos.
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