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The inspiration for the Crossroads logo (created by Studio Grafico Norfini, Florence, Italy) is "Broadway Boogie Woogie" by Piet Mondrian, 1942-43, oil on canvas, MoMA New York

A New Education

What is at the origin of every human action? It is attraction. Ultimately, all that we do and desire originates in the appeal that the world has for us, which touches us before we take even one step. In fact, our personalities are formed in response to this attraction.

It is the presumption of old age that reality is shaped by our ideas. The experience of the child is wonder in front of something that is completely given, always new, unexpected, and appealing. Life is either the continuous, exciting discovery of something that was unknown, or it is an inevitable slide into boredom. In fact, what is most attractive about the world is that, in its given-ness, it always points beyond itself to something other, still unseen, secret and mysterious. Accordingly, to live is to walk following the mysterious call of reality: homo viator. The explorer, not the "expert," is the paradigm of humanity.

To return to this original position is the only way to begin anew and to experience culture in its fullest sense: the free development of our human capacity for knowing and interpreting everything that exists. Otherwise, we are doomed to fall into the trap of ideology.

Paradoxically, few periods in history have been as aware of "cultural" issues as we are today. We go to great lengths to catalogue, analyze, preserve, and restore the most obscure expressions of human experience. At the same time, few ages in history have been as unable to "cultivate" humanity as we are. At our core, we are nagged by doubt about the status of our own humanity, after successive waves of rationalist ideology have attempted to reduce or deny the innate and mysterious thirst for meaning that marks us. If the ultimate value of the human experience is in doubt, what space is left for culture? Are we not justified in suspecting, with Nietzsche, that the antiquarian and technical expertise of our time conceals a grave sterility? And what is at the root of this sterility if not an insecurity about our own value and the very positivity of being? If this is the case, we should not waste time in rear-guard battles against the senile follies of modernity and its conflicting ideologies.

The impetus for the work of Crossroads is the perception that we are in need of a new education, a fresh start. A fresh start is not a matter of a new "idea;" it is a matter of being faithful to our most original experience - "reality precedes us and it is positive" - and to what we already are: "a relationship with."

Mission and History

Our goal is to offer opportunities for education, making it possible to look with openness, curiosity and critical judgment at every aspect of reality.

WHO WE ARE

Crossroads Cultural Center is a project of the Human Adventure Corporation, a New York (501)(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation. It was established in New York in 2004 by a few members of Communion and Liberation, the international movement in the Roman Catholic Church that was founded in Italy in 1954 by Msgr. Luigi Giussani. These friends shared an interest in the relationship between religion and culture, more specifically on the ways in which Christianity, by revealing the ultimate meaning of reality, gives new impulse to the human desire for knowledge. Crossroads currently operates through local branches in New York, Washington (DC), and New Bedford (MA).

OUR GOAL AND IDEALS

Our goal is to offer opportunities for education, making it possible to look with openness, curiosity and critical judgment at every aspect of reality.

Our ideals are summed up by the suggestion of Saint Paul: "Test everything; retain what is good." In our experience, the mark of a Christian culture is that it fosters interest in the full spectrum of reality, rather than focusing on a predetermined set of “religious” issues. A sign of its authenticity is the ability, or at least the desire, to encounter people from all walks of life, and to look for and appreciate everything that is true, good and worthwhile in the various expressions of human life. These expressions include science, the arts, politics, journalism and the media, theology, history, economy, sociology, and education.

For us, this openness and desire is the fruit of the education received in the Roman Catholic Church.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “CULTURE”?

Culture is a systematic and critical awareness of reality; it is the free development of our human need and capacity for knowing and interpreting everything in reality. Knowledge is a primary need of every person and not something that belongs to the “experts.” Culture is an activity proper to every person, because nobody can live without constantly developing and communicating to others a certain awareness of reality. Human curiosity is stirred by wonder – you walk out your door and things are there; life is given, a new and unexpected event that awakens the desire to know its meaning. This focus on reality as event (and not on ideas) determines the style, method, and priority of our cultural work.

Hence:

  • We prize encountering people, because every human being is an irreducible novelty. We want to meet them at the "crossroads" of life, regardless of any cultural, religious or social boundary.
  • We value beauty, because it sparks the wonder and attraction at the origin of human experience.
  • We are interested in the events that shape our world, because what happens always contains a suggestion, a hint of something that affects and may change our lives.
  • We cherish appreciating and testing our heritage, because the fabric of our lives is woven from all the events that happened before us.

WHAT WE DO

  • We organize panel discussions, conferences, lectures, seminars, artistic performances, concerts and public interviews that fall under one of five categories: “Human Affairs,” “Memory and Identity,” “Face to Face with…,” “Beauty Will Save the World” and “To Know More About...” (seminars). Our events categories are organized in cycles (two per year, Spring and Fall), with an average of one event per month in each city.
  • We have a blog (“Paper Clippings”) for online discussion of newspaper articles selected on a semi-weekly basis.
  • We publish a monthly e-mail newsletter (“Crossroads of the Month”).
  • We sponsor and help promote events organized by other organizations or groups of people (“friends of Crossroads”) who have been inspired by Crossroads.
  • We make available to campus ministries, high schools, and parishes some of our speakers and their most enriching presentations (“Crossroads on the Road”).
  • Crossroads has a book reading list as well as a classical music listening list.

Learn more about CROSSROADS »