‘Dialogue, religions, geopolitics’ was the title of the inaugural lecture given by Fabio Petito, Professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex.
On Tuesday 4th March, the 17th academic year of the Sophia University Institute in Loppiano (Figline and Incisa Valdarno – Florence) was inaugurated. The ceremony took place in the main hall of the Institute, in the presence of the entire academic community and a representation of the rich network of relationships and collaborations that the Sophia University Institute has been able to weave with institutions, other universities and third sector organisations in these first 17 years of its existence.
The following people took part: the Rector, Declan O’Byrne; the Chancellor of the Institute, Gherardo Gambelli, Archbishop of Florence; the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Margaret Karram, President of the Focolare Movement; the Bishop of Fiesole, Stefano Manetti; the mayor of Figline and Incisa Valdarno, Valerio Pianigiani; Paolo Cancelli, director of the Development Office of the Pontifical University Antonianum; Marco Salvatori, President of the Giorgio La Pira International Student Centre.
The centrepiece of the ceremony was the inaugural lecture entitled ‘Dialogue, religions, geopolitics’ given by Fabio Petito, Professor of International Relations and Director of the Freedom of Religion or Belief & Foreign Policy Initiative at the University of Sussex, as well as Scientific Coordinator of the Religions and International Relations Programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ISPI (Institute for International Political Studies). Petito emphasised that today, ‘religion seems to be part of, and sometimes at the centre of, the current scenario of instability and international crisis’. However, although this is a less visible phenomenon globally, ‘it cannot be denied that in the last quarter of a century there has been a significant increase in the efforts of representatives of religious communities to respond to violence and political tensions through initiatives of dialogue and interreligious collaboration’. Petito thus emphasised the importance that places like the Sophia University Institute can have in creatively deepening and spreading the culture of encounter and ‘making small seeds of hope and fruits of unity and human fraternity blossom’.
In true Sophia style, an international academic community and a laboratory of life, education, study and research, the inaugural lecture was followed by a dialogue, moderated by the journalist and Vatican expert Andrea Gagliarducci (Eternal Word Television Network and ACI Stampa), which involved the Chancellor Arcbishop Gherardo Gambelli, on his first visit to the Institute, the Vice-Chancellor Dr Margaret Karram and six students from the university.
The dialogue, starting from the personal stories of young people from the Holy Land, the Philippines, Argentina, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Peru, touched on topics of global importance and burning current affairs: the value of grassroots diplomacy for conflict resolution and the search for peace; the commitment to a more just and equitable economy, with the experience of Economy of Francesco; the role of young people from the Mediterranean in building a culture of encounter; the value of reconciliation and interreligious dialogue, in particular between Christians and Muslims with the Sophian experience of Wings of Unity; the hopes of young Africans involved in the Together for a New Africa project, for change and the common good of their continent; the concerns and fragility of young people in search of a vocation and fulfilment in a globalised world.
The inauguration of the 2024-25 academic year highlighted, once again, the ability of this still small academic organisation to train young people to face the complexity of today’s world, in a trans-disciplinary perspective, and to work in synergy with specialists from various fields and institutions to promote dialogue between cultures in the concreteness of social life, giving impetus to the inner, intellectual and social growth of people in a dynamic of reciprocity.
