Josef Mario Briffa SJ

Academia as Encounter

This last weekend we had a visit from our Father General, major superiors, as well as the Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University. The following is my reflection, which I entitled “Academia as place of encounter with the past and the present.”

Academia as encounter with the past and the present

Reflection by Josef Mario Briffa, SJ
Fr Josef Mario Briffa, SJ, is the Director of Academic Programmes at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem

On 18 October 1925 the foundation stone of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem was lain with great ceremony. This was to be the starting point for the fulfilment of a dream that started in 1913, four years after the foundation of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. The dream was not about the stone and mortar, but of encounter with the land of Incarnation and salvation. As such it is highly significant that Father General, with his team as well as the Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University – of which the Pontifical Biblical Institute is now part – should visit us at the century milestone of that foundation.

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Meeting with academic leadership of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (Left to right): Vice President for International Affairs Prof. Guy Harpaz; Rector Prof. Oron Shagrir; Rev. Prof. Mark Lewis SJ, Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University; Dean of the Faculty of Humanities Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten; Rev. Prof Josef Mario Briffa SJ and International Office Head Ms. Jane Turner.
Photo with Fr General and our major superiors, the Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, as well as the Director and Vice-Director of the Ecole Biblique, and the Dean of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum.

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