After the Covid pandemic the community of Centro Internazionale di San’Alberto returned to a celebration of the new academic year with the two international communities in Rome participating. Every year at the beginning of the month of October, CISA there is opening of the academic year. Again this year, on October 12, with the prayer of vespers and an introduction by prior general Míċeál O'Neill on the importance of community and fraternal life, we met with members of the General Curia and entered into a new year of work and study.

The CISA community is composed of the members of the Institutum Carmelitanum, the archivist and librarian, and the students pursuing higher studies and specializations. This year members come from the provinces, commissariats, delegations in the Congo, Indonesia, India, Italy, Kenya, Malta, Timor Este, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

Students are studying at different universities in Rome, e.g. the Gregorian University, the Biblicum, the Salesianum ,and others. CISA, although it is a house of studies and research, is striving to live religious community life. In the academic year, there are times planned on a regular basis for Lectio divina, community prayer, retreat days, community meetings, formation days, and all that we need to improve the life of the brothers.

During the previous year CISA successfully closed with three members receiving doctorates in various theological subjects (see CITOC #74 and #146). Also during the current year, considerable energy went into unifying the general library with the Carmelite library under Mario Alfarano, O. Carm.

CISA hosts many visitors during the normal year, providing hospitality for the various international meetings of the Carmelite Family, as well as member of the Order and others who come to Rome for various reasons. The so-called “permanent community” is composed of the 7 confreres from the different countries of the world under the leadership of the prior of CISA, Tadeusz Popiela, O. Carm.