Discerning The Present To Prepare The Future Of The University Education Of The Society Of Jesus
Father Arturo Sosa offered on August 4th at the IAJU Assembly a speech that emphasised the context of today's world, offering a meaningful Ignatian perspective for all members of the university communities, oriented towards the exercise of the Common Good.
The meeting aimed to discern the specific contribution that higher education institutions can offer at this particular moment in human history. Father Sosa's contribution was structured in six parts:
• Discerning the present: a requirement for preparing the future
• Encouraging the emergence of meaningful lives
• Seeding a thirsty land
• Building on intergenerational and intercultural experiences
• Bringing together the university, politics and universal citizenship with a view to reconciliation and peace
• Proposing a life “with and for others”
"The spirituality that flows from the charism of the Society of Jesus understands the full life to be one that always seeks “in everything to love and to serve.” That is how we conceive of “excellence.” Through discernment in common, we propose to animate institutions that are excellent because the people who work, do research, teach and study in them find the conditions to lead lives with meaning, lives that advance toward fullness.
Making the university a space of discernment helps to overcome the tendencies to fragmentation that exist in secular society.
As universities whose identity includes the commitment to the mission of reconciliation and justice, we have the enormous responsibility of helping to distinguish the truth from the falsehoods used to justify autocrats who present themselves as the only authentic defenders of the people."
Fr. General Arturo Sosa - 4 August 2022
Father General ended his speech by recalling that it is the desire of the Society of Jesus that the assembly renew the creative energies of IAJU members and in doing so continue to be institutions that form integral and integrated people, capable of discerning the present throughout their lives and committed to the search for social and ecological justice.
On behalf of the Society of Jesus, he also expressed sincere gratitude for the community's commitment to the complex university mission in such diverse contexts throughout the world and asked for help to remain a body capable of "loving and serving in everything".
You can read Father General’s full speech in English / Spanish.
Watch the video of Father General's speech (in Spanish)