Maybe I should now apply for a sabbatical in 2009. The Pontifical Biblical Institute will be celebrating its centenary that year and I think some of the activities will be interesting. I received a letter announcing the event just this morning when I went to my parents' place in Antipolo. R. P. Stephen Pisano, S. J. who was my professor in Textual Criticism is now the Rector of the Institute and the one in charge of Alumni Affairs signed the letter. He writes:
May 7, 2009 a hundred years after the official date of the foundation (of the institute), will see the beginning of the "centennial year". We will mark the date with a solemn academic act which will have its principal moment in the presentation of the book written by Fr. Maurice Gilbert: "The Pontifical Biblical Institute: A Hundred Years of History (1909-2009)" which will be published in French, Italian and English. In a volume of around 500 pages including archival documents and photos, Fr. Gilbert traces stage by stage the salient moments of the life of the Institute. On the occassion, a special edition of the list of alumni containing all the persons who have become protagonists in the hundred years of the institute's life -- authorities, professors and students -- it will be a volume that acts as a complement to the historical compendium of Fr. Gilbert.
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The apostolic letter of the Institute, Vinea Electa, derives from the date 7 May 1909, but the academic activities began in the following autumn. For this reason, the inauguration of the academic year 2009-2010 (8 October 2009) will be celebrated in a particularly solemn way.
For the centenary, the publication of a special volume of the Analecta Biblica is also scheduled: "Biblical Exegesis in Progress; Old and New Testament Essays" (edited by Jean-Noel Aletti, SJ and Jean Louis Ska, SJ): a collection of essays from the professors of the Biblical Faculty of the Institute meant to show the evolution of exegesis in the different areas of biblical research. The volume will be presented in the context of a scientific convention lasting a few days, which will be held at the closing of the centennial year, in the first week of May 2010.
During the centenary there will also be a special audience with the Holy Father, but for the moment it is not possible to fix the time nor the date for it, since it does not depend on us.
Apart from the events just mentioned, there will be others associated with the centenary. For example, the Society of Biblical Literature has decided to hold in Rome its international convention for 2009 (probably in the beginning of July) in consideration of the centennial celebrations of the Biblicum...
