On Friday, April 12, starting at 5:00 PM, in Hall A of the Auditorium of Loppiano (Figline and Incisa Valdarno – FI), the inauguration ceremony of the XVI Academic Year of the Sophia University Institute (S.U.I.) took place. The hall was packed with students, faculty, administrative staff, residents of the international Focolare citadel, as well as representatives of religious and civil authorities. Among them were: Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, Archbishop of Florence and Grand Chancellor of the I.U.S.; Dr. Margaret Karram, president of the Focolare Movement and Vice Grand Chancellor of Sophia; Giulia Mugnai, mayor of Figline and Incisa Valdarno, and the bishop of Fiesole, Stefano Manetti.
The common thread of the various interventions that followed in the afternoon was a reflection on the role of universities, and of Sophia in particular, in the time of crisis we are experiencing.
They opened the ceremony with the greetings from Cardinal Betori. “The vocation of the university,” he stated, “should be to educate in the capacity to go beyond trivialities and clichés, to open common sense to the mystery of things not taken for granted. It is up to universities like Sophia to testify to the reasonableness of faith. Therefore, they educate to read, to interpret, the reality, guiding the gaze of every young person towards that truth that each one, even unknowingly, seeks.”
Then, Dr. Margaret Karram took the floor, after greeting the authorities present, she extended her wishes to the students who, in this historical moment, have chosen “with courage and hope”to prepare for the future by attending Sophia University Institute. Its purpose is “to educate young people toward contemporary complexity, in a transdisciplinary perspective, and to promote the method of dialogue between cultures and peoples in the concreteness of daily life and in various areas of living.” She concluded: “May Sophia be one of those laboratories that train women and men capable of being bearers of peace and unity at this time.“
The passion and enthusiasm of the students attending the S.U.I. were testified by the greetings of Noè Rigoberto Herrera Garcia, representative of the students in the Senate, and Simona Padellini, representative in the Academic Council, who shared some reflections on the life and study experience that they and their colleagues live at Sophia.
“At Sophia, students and faculty from all over the world come together. The university corridors are crossed by 50 countries, 30 languages, 5 continents. Differences are a pulsating and daily learning engine; distances are spaces to be crossed by building bridges, and conflicts are a heritage of energy to be converted into new relationships with a positive impact,” stated Padellini. And Herrera Garcia added, “Despite Sophia being a small community, with only 15 years of history, we strongly believe that it can be an example for the academic world and for all students who want to generate social impact starting from their studies.“
Rector Declan O’Byrne, an Irish theologian, officially opened the Academic Year 2023-2024 at the end of a speech that led participants to reflect on the social value of universities. “If states invest in universities, it is because it is considered a national interest to invest in young people. Investment is made because well-educated youth bring social benefits. It is believed that a nation that ensures the education of new generations will be able to adapt and bring innovation, which in turn will guarantee the future competitiveness of the nation itself,” he affirmed. Regarding the particular mission of the Sophia University Institute, he reiterated,“We want to be a place where, while aware that we are living in a dramatic historical moment, we look at the human capacity to build lasting peace. We want to study and teach to see those ‘seeds’ that already today express the possibility of solving the crisis we are experiencing.”
To conclude the ceremony, the keynote address was delivered by Massimo Marianelli, Professor of the History of Philosophy at the University of Perugia, titled: “Sophia, rediscovering the human in the ‘between’.”
Professor Marianelli thus recalled the fruitful collaborations activated between the University of Perugia and the Sophia University Institute, highlighting common points in their respective policies:“Attention to the human being and the primacy of relationships as constitutive elements of paths of humanism capable of embracing innovation in sustainable environmental perspectives, which open up to coherent educational paths capable of ‘cultivating and continuing the human aspect in our time.” He further remarked, “The ‘relationship’ as both a ‘given’ and a ‘relationship between disciplines,’ between different areas of knowledge, is a common intersection point for defining paths attentive to our era, characterized by interconnections never so rapid and necessary for understanding the present, thus contributing to the integration of different scientific areas.”
And he concluded: “Sophia represents a privileged place, a gymnasium to continue a sense of humanity corresponding to this authentically human vocation.“
At the end of the ceremony, the opening of registrations for the Degree Course (Master’s Degree) in Culture of Unity for the biennium (2024-2026) was also announced.
