![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/20120803-05-250x164.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2018The grain of wheat has fallen into the earth and has begun to sprout<\/strong>, fragile but full of life and rich with promise. This gives cause for great and sincere thanks to those who, with dedication and generosity, have worked to set up the Institute<\/strong><\/a> and to help it through its teething pains. As we have gone along, we have realized the beauty, the originality and also our responsibility for the \u2018idea\u2019 of a university that Chiara Lubich<\/strong>, with inspired intuition and tremendous trust, committed to our care.\u2019 These are the words of the theologian Piero Coda during a live interview (published in Italian on the Sophia\u2019s site) following the confirmation of his presidency for the next four years. \u2018Sophia, today, is a reality<\/strong>.\u2019<\/p>\n How do things look academically?<\/strong> The President explains them:<\/p>\n The news of the renewal of Piero Coda\u2019s term of office reached the University Institute in July. The decree by the Congregation for Catholic Education had been expected. It was dated 11 July 2012 and sent to Maria Voce<\/a>, President of the Focolare Movement and the Institute\u2019s Vice-Chancellor. The Congregation\u2019s initial appointment in 2008 had been at the request of Chiara Lubich<\/strong><\/a> herself, slightly earlier in the year, on 12 March, just two days before her death.<\/p>\n What are the priorities<\/strong> for his second term of office? Piero Coda replies: \u2018The things I am most concerned about are faithfulness to the idea behind the Institute<\/strong> and the growth of a spirit of fraternity<\/strong> animating\u00a0 the various parts of the academic community; the development of its academic project along the lines we have been called to discern and interpret; and the commitment to establish, both realistically and prophetically, a place where it is possible to exercise and to learn the novel approach, the art of \u2018thinking together\u2019…<\/p>\n \u2018The true director is the Spirit of the Risen Jesus<\/strong> who blows and illumines what we strive to do, having dropped all our defences, ready to welcome him with freedom and listen to him with intelligence. Isn\u2019t this what \u201cSophia<\/strong>\u201d really is? Something so divine because it is so human, and at the same time, something that fascinates, something we wish to love and share with everyone who, in any way, we are called to walk together with towards the united world already beginning to emerge among the contradictions of our times?\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After the first four years, the President of the University Institute begins another four-year term of presidency. It is the moment to take stock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/20120803-01.jpg\")
The election of the President has a specific procedure with a clear purpose: to protect both the total academic autonomy of the Institute and its essential link with the Focolare Movement, while the appointment by the Vatican dicastery overseeing university education emphasizes the Institute\u2019s academic nature.<\/p>\n