https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/87912 2026-04-04T21:01:19Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/88062 Title: Editorial note : two magnetic personalities bridging the twentieth and the twenty‐first centuries Abstract: I am privileged to pen this Editorial Note as I introduce this monographic issue of the peer-reviewed journal of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Malta. Our Faculty, the “mother-Faculty” of the University of Malta, dates back to 1592 when the Jesuits founded the Collegium Melitense in Valletta. Later events led to the formal foundation of the University of Malta by Grand Master Emmanuel Pinto, in 1769. This university just celebrated its sestercentennial year. By means of this monograph, The Word and the Church, the Faculty of Theology is honoured to commemorate the centenary of two great Catholic personalities who have left a great impact not only on the Church, but on humanity as a whole – the Slav Pope, John Paul II, and the foundress of the Focolare Movement, Chiara Lubich. It can be affirmed that the respective roles and charismas of the two converged, particularly in the last quarter of the twentieth century. [excerpt] 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/88061 Title: The prophetic insight of Chiara Lubich : the word that is love Authors: Povilus, Judith Abstract: Chiara Lubich possessed “an almost prophetic capacity to intuit and actualise beforehand ‘the thought of the Pope’.” These significant words of Benedict XVI appear in a letter, read out by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, at Chiara Lubich’s funeral Mass in 2008, following the Pope’s mention of her uninterrupted bond with his predecessors from John XXIII to John Paul II. Saint John Paul II, born in the same year as Chiara and whose papacy was the longest to run in parallel with her action as Founder and President of the Focolare Movement, would surely have agreed on several counts. In his 1984 visit to the International Centre of the Focolare in Rocca di Papa, he had put his finger on one example recognising “the radicalism of love of Chiara, of the Focolarini,” – a “Gospel radicalism of love” – as an answer to what had long been his concern for a hate-dominated world. He saw it as a source of renewal in the direction of the vision of Church outlined in the Vatican Constitutions Lumen gentium and Gaudium et spes. [excerpt] 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/87978 Title: Pope John Paul II and Chiara Lubich : each in their own way highlighting the Church’s Marian profile Authors: Leahy, Brendan Abstract: Occasionally, when they would meet, Pope John Paul would quip to Chiara Lubich “you’re older than me!” It was true – but just by a few months. She was born on 22 January 1920 in Trent, Italy, and he on 18 May 1920 in Wadowice, Poland. Their paths would cross many years later when both had, by then, a particularly developed understanding of Mary, the Mother of God, and of her place in the life of the members of the Church. In this short article, I propose to sketch briefly some of the main points of their spiritual doctrine regarding Mary. More specifically I want to highlight the theme of the Marian profile of the Church that both held as very significant and both spoke about to one another. Each in their own way, highlighted the Church’s Marian profile. [excerpt] 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/87977 Title: Pope John Paul II and his Ecumenical legacy Authors: Mayer, Annemarie C. Abstract: Every pontificate bears its own specific stamp and, since Vatican II, every Pope has had his own characteristic approach to ecumenism. Regarding ecumenical involvement, Pope John Paul II, during one of the longest pontificates ever, gave a new shape to the papacy. The year 2020 marks the centenary of the birth of John Paul II, but it is also a century-and-a-half since the First Vatican Council which, when it solemnly defined papal primacy, emphasised that such papal authority was to be exercised “in service of the unity of faith and communion.” Vatican II stated this even more clearly. John Paul II interpreted the “unity of faith and communion” in a broad, ecumenical sense. Therefore, he stated, early on in his pontificate, “I want to serve unity.” For him the Petrine ministry constituted the principle of unity for all Christians and he attached the highest importance to ecumenical leadership to the papal job-description. [excerpt] 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z