A joining of two groups committed to interreligious dialogue, understanding and human unity occurred when the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding of Sacred Heart University welcomed the founder and many members of the Focolare Movement. The University conferred upon Chiara Lubich the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa. 

Born in Trent, Italy, in 1920, Lubich began during World War II what was to become her life's work when with a few friends, meeting in underground shelters, they sought direction from the Scriptures and ways to help people suffering wartime distress and privation. This was the beginning of what today is known as the Focolare Movement, a worldwide, multi-denominational symbol of religious unity and hope operating in more than 180 countries throughout the world. 

Focolare has some 100,000 full-time members and 2 million associates, 40 formation centers, 19 "Mariopolis" (model towns which are schools of life and training grounds for unity), 27 "New City" publishing houses and numerous centers for interreligious dialogue. Both Pope John VI and Pope John Paul II have blessed and encouraged the Focolare Movement. Lubich has received much recognition for her outstanding accomplishments, including the 1996 UNESCO Prize for Peace Education, The Ecumenical Peace of Augsburg Award and the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.
The academic convocation on May 21, 1997, during which the honorary doctorate was conferred, provided Anthony J. Cernera, Ph.D., the University's president, an opportunity to share cogent and inspiring insights into the kinds of unity both Focolare and CCJU seek to foster. His remarks follow:

At its most fundamental level, this convocation invites us to reflect on what it means to be human. It puts before us the question of What does it mean to be human? How can I/we live an authentically human life?

Such questions readily admit to the fact that authentic human living is not given automatically with existence. It is both gift and task -- received and lived out in a particular historical context and within a particular community. It is a gift to be received and a task to be lived every day in each person's continuing quest for self-appropriation as a knower, a lover, a human being created in the image of the Incomprehensible Mystery whom we call God.

This convocation suggested several points of reflection for me that I would like to share with you.

First, the recognition and celebration of the life and work of Chiara Lubich reminds me that no one particular culture is complete or fully expresses the conditions in which the potential of human existence are realized fully. This means that my cultural and religious tradition -- of which I am proud and about which I have the responsibility to appropriate in a critical fashion so that I may grow and it may grow -- can be enriched. I can gain a deeper insight into the truth about human existence through dialogue with people of other cultural and religious traditions.

It is in genuine dialogue with the Other and Other that both of us have the opportunity to enter more deeply into the meaning of life, into an appreciation of who each of us is and of the humanity that we share in common.

Second, I am not sufficient unto myself. I am not complete without a fundamental relationship with God and with you. We need one another. With one another -- in all of our differences, limitations, and brokenness -- in all of our giftedness, talents and beauty -- human life is more fully lived and celebrated.

Our efforts today call us to affirm a simple truth about human life: we are made for dialogue and communion with one another, a dialogue and communion in which all participants will be enriched by the conversation because no one person or culture has the fullness of truth in its grasp.

In the best sense then, today is an educational day because we are invited to enter into conversation and dialogue. We are invited to share our experiences of life, our values, our understanding in a way that is genuinely open to the experience, values and understanding of one another.

Third, Asculta -- listen! That is not easy. If we are honest with ourselves, listening and openness, as fundamental human dispositions, are not easily achieved. These virtues require discipline and the formation of habits that are often neglected in our society -- attentiveness, silence, receptivity, humility. It requires that we be willing to be life-long learners. It invites us to a disposition of heart and mind in which willingness to believe, seeking to understand, and affirmation of the other person's dignity and worth are affirmed.

Such an antecedent attitude stands in marked contrast to the attitude that starts off with being skeptical for the sake of skepticism. Attitudes of negativity, dispositions to dispute everything, to put difficulties in the way of every proposal, to find fault with every suggestion that comes from someone else while contributing no positive alternatives, such attitudes stand in the way of coming to a fuller appreciation of one another.

Please follow me to be concrete for a moment. When we enter into a conversation with another person, particularly someone different than ourselves, do I start off by looking for what is wrong in what he or she is saying, or do I primarily seek to learn from the person? What happens when I encounter an argument or position that is unexpected or puzzling? Do I first look for the weakness or the error? Or do I look for a point that I now have the opportunity to learn?

Fourth and finally, as an academic community whose roots and continuing vision are nourished by Catholic social teaching, there is the imperative to listen to those who have been on the margins of society and to learn from them. Catholic social teaching affirms that the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed of our world are often special bearers of God's word to the world today. Perhaps this world of ours would be significantly humanized if we could learn how to listen to the "forgotten ones" of history.

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