Inauguration of the 4th Academic Year at Sophia University Institute

“Hopes and doubts. These are the sentiments we feel when we arrive in Sophia University Institute,” says student representative Gabriel Almeida. “Sophia for us means answering a call that God directs toward each one of us and which can be found in the story of many here, a call to be an itinerant community, which desires – not without struggle – a civilization of love.”

The atmosphere at the beginning of this fourth academic year is one of change, of growth and innovation. Nearly one thousand professors, students and friends from all over Italy attended the opening ceremonies of the new academic year on 17 October at Loppiano. They were joined by mayors from Tuscany, political and religious leaders, and faculty from other European institutes of learning with whom Sophia is establishing fruitful study relations.

In his opening statement, Giuseppe Betori, Chancellor of Sophia Institute and Archbishop of Florence, called Sophia “something young in its act of founding, but able to find ample space within the academic world (… ) for advancing its own new proposals in the current cultural context of dialogue and communion. I extend to you the exhortation of the Pope at the Seminary in Freiburg: ‘We are Church: let us be Church, let us be Church precisely by opening ourselves and stepping outside ourselves and being Church with others.’

The results achieved by Sophia in its first four years are encouraging: 83 students are enrolled so far in the Master Degree program, including 34 this year. Thirty-three have defended a thesis and obtained a degree in “Foundations and Perspectives of a Culture of Unity.” Fifteen are enrolled in the doctorate program, and 7 in degree courses at other academic institutions, where they are acquiring the necessary credits to gain access to the doctoral program. Also noteworthy is the presence of 31 students who follow personal study programs.

And academic achievement is what is most encouraging about Sophia University Institute (SUI), as Maria Voce, Vice-chancellor and president of the Focolare Movement relates: “Each time I sign a certificate, I have the joy of knowing that another person has been immerged in this culture of unity and is bringing it into the world. Based on what has been accomplished so far, we can only feel real optimism for the future of Sophia.” And she set living the Word of the Gospel as the basic tenet upon which to develop the experience of Sophia: “I invite you to let yourselves be deeply permeated by this Word, which is Jesus’ way of thinking, of acting, and of loving.”

While addressing some of the future challenges of this academic community, SUI’s President Piero Coda explained how today it is necessary to upgrade the course of study, so that degree titles may better correspond to empirical standards and be more expendable on an academic professional plane. “For this reason, three new courses of specialization are in the process of being defined in Political Studies, Economy and Management: Trinitarian Ontology.”

More space will be given within the Institute for study and research in the Social Sciences, thanks to the institution of a Chair in “Fundamentals of the Social Sciences” and through an upcoming congress in collaboration with the University of Trent. In the inaugural lecture, Brazilian sociologist, Vera Araujo, affirmed the belief that: “There have never been better times than these to be a sociologist.” “We also want to say something about the possibility of finding new paradigms and models: the human person, brotherhood, communion, agape-love, unity. Not only concepts or paradigms, but tools to equip the work areas of those in the social fields.”

These reflections have the flavor of encouragement not only for the new sociology, but also – and perhaps above all – for the academic adventure begun by Sophia, which is called to sprinkle society with a new culture.