Global Partnerships in Jesuit Higher Education

Abstract

The Roman Catholic Church sponsors the largest worldwide family of educational institutions—135,000 elementary and secondary schools and 1,800 colleges and universities. Catholic identity provides a matchless opportunity for networking in an increasingly globalized world; it is sad Ex corde Ecclesiae’s exhortation to collaborate is often unheeded. Last April at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, the Society of Jesus initiated new steps to counter that sad trend. The conference brought together some 300 educational leaders from over 200 institutions around the globe for 3 days of presentations and discussions on such topics as regional challenges facing Jesuit higher education; Catholic identity and mission; theology, science, and culture; markets, inequality, and poverty; ecology and sustainability; and human rights and the university. Rev. Adolfo Nicolas, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, gave a keynote address, “Depth, Universality, and Learned Ministry: Challenges to Jesuit Higher Education Today,” which highlighted three interrelated challenges to higher education. The first, “promoting depth of thought and imagination,” addressed the gradual process of dehumanization in the wake of our globalized and technological society where information is readily available, but seldom processed at a deeper level. “People lose the ability to engage with reality,” Fr. Nicolas asserted.