Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Jesuit Strength In The New Orleans Province

This is an excerpt of a great interview with Fr. Richard P. Salmi, S.J. the President of Spring Hill College.

Blogger Note: Please notice!:
"No Jesuit Losses! at this institution"

Q: How do you maintain the Jesuit character of the school with a declining number of Jesuit priests and brothers?

A: Let me preface this by saying we have more Jesuits here this year than we did last year.

There are 14 in the community. ... For the size of our college, that's a pretty good ratio of Jesuits to students. ... Being a Jesuit school means that folks, both our faculty and staff and our students to some extent, buy into the Ignatian spirituality that is part of what it means to be a Jesuit school.
... Beyond that, what is important is that we help our faculty and staff know what it means to be Jesuit. ... The Jesuits always wanted their students to be educated in philosophy and theology, but they also emphasized the arts through the years.

Q: Under your leadership, how will Spring Hill change and how will it stay the same?

A: We're going to stay Jesuit Catholic. ... You come here and you know you are part of a caring campus community, and I hope that won't change either. ... I would like to see the college grow and I'm hoping that we can look at some expansion. ... One of the things I hope to spend a little bit more attention on is athletics.

Link (here) to the in depth interview, including a video with Fr. Richard P. Salmi, S.J.

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