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]