The Southern Institute gives students the opportunity to encounter Christ.
Arequipa, 09/05/13 (Sodalite News – Peru). The Southern Institute celebrated its XXV anniversary with a thanksgiving Mass presided over by Archbishop Javier del Río Alba, the Archbishop of Arequipa.
In his homily Archbishop Del Río stated that the Southern Institute is an “Institutional effort that has not been sterile, but is surrounded by many fruits.” He said that the Southern Institute is a creative catholic institute; and like all catholic institutes, is an instrument of evangelization; it’s a way by which students can encounter Christ.
The Archbishop also –by invoking the example of Saint Monica—invited the authorities, deacons, students from the Southern Institute, and all those present “to pray so that the Lord will hear our prayers, see our efforts, and be attentive to all of our needs.”
For Javier Rodríguez Canales, a sodalite and representative of the marketing team of The Southern Institute, the XXV anniversary celebration is, “an opportunity to give thanks for the gifts received, to renew itself in its identity, and to promote enthusiasm for the new opportunities that the future has in store.” Making an analogy between 25 years of human life with the silver wedding jubilee, Rodríguez explained that “The life of an educational institution is created with many hopes and later becomes an adult to assume an active role in the society, by which we need to give thanks to God for the fruits that its former students contribute to the country.”
“The Southern Institute holds a very significant place in the life and mission of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae. It was one of the first sodalite educational projects,” Rodríguez, who remembers that the opening of the institute, said that it “was a chance to edify a community vitally inspired in the faith of the Church and that will strongly project itself towards society evangelizing the culture.
Javier Rodríguez Canales also said that, “the next few years will bring great challenges” taking different forms; but that the greatest challenge will be “making the Church, along with its integral human development proposal present in an environment increasingly more influenced by reductive visions of the human person.” In this way it will be assured that “if the educative community of the Institute remains committed to the Lord Jesus in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, it will make a great contribution fundamental to the evangelization that the world needs.”
“Twenty five years ago, a group of enthusiastic young men and women decided to take a chance on the development of Arequipa and launch the initiative of developing a modern educative proposal, one that is demanding, integral and highly specialized to respond to the challenges that the city and the country were facing,” recalled Gabriela Cabieses de Rodríguez, the General Director, who assured that “with great joy and pride, by the grace of God, the challenged has been met.
Today the Southern Institute has eleven professional careers, four extension programs, and one special project department; it has more than two thousand graduates and thousands more that have passed through the extension programs and special projects. “But none of this would have been possible without the effort and support of so many people who have accompanied us throughout this beautiful time and to whom we are very grateful”, explained Cabieses mentioning the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae as its promoter, the whole administrative team, the teachers and the institute’s business friends. “I principally want to thank our Lord Jesus Christ, without whose constant care we would have never been able to do nothing that we have accomplished up until today” said the director who has participated in the project since its beginnings.
Rafael Ismodes, the Regional Superior of the Sodalitium in Peru, directed a few words towards the alumni where he invited them to take part in the “creative work of God with love, dedication, honesty and responsibility toward all and toward the society.
“Gratitude and challenges,” summarized Ismodes when reflecting on the 25 years of the Institute and added that this gratitude and these challenges, “fill us with hope to approach the next years with renewed dedication to be at the service of you all; so that you all learn to change this society that is in need of your work.
In celebrating it’s 25 years, the Southern Institute programmed a week of activities for the public, consisting in academic conferences that allowed the students and assistants to participate in interesting expositions on forefront themes with both national and international prominent speakers. They took place on September 2nd until the 7th. You can find more information on the expositions by clicking here.
The Southern Institute is a Catholic educative community of high technological specialization, that promotes the integral formation of the human person and the development of society in light of the Sodalite spirituality.