The mission of the Society of Jesus
The Son of God's
mission to mankind, as decided by the Trinity while contemplating our
Earth, came about so that men might find the right path on their journey
in the world, that they might understand the reason for which they were
created, the significance of the fact that they were called into life,
their responsibility for all created things. St. Ignatius speaks of
leading us
"to the goal for the sake of which we were created" or - with
the words of our faith -
"to be saved". This mission of the Son of
God continues in the life of the Church and of the Society of Jesus;
that mission gives meaning to our own specific mission as educators in
the schools founded and run by the Society of Jesus. In October we
and the whole Church will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the
opening of Vatican Council II, which we must continue to consider as a
vital
"compass" for life in our times, as the formulation of the mission
of the Church in the modern world. In the light of the guidance of
the Council, over succeeding decades the Society of Jesus has celebrated
five General Congregations (which, as you know, are the gatherings of
representatives from the Society of Jesus throughout the world), on
average one every ten years, in order to continue to reflect upon and
reformulate its specific mission in the light of changing times and
different cultural contexts.
Faithful to its origins, the mission of
the Society of Jesus has always been defined as a "service of faith".
However, over time this service of faith has become enriched with new
characteristics, and has been seen from perspectives which have enabled
it to interact with new problems. Thus the service of faith has
increasingly had to interact with the secularisation of the modern
world, and has been seen as being indissolubly linked to the promotion
of the justice of the Kingdom announced by Christ. This has certainly
been influenced by the intense reflections of the Church on the theme of
justice in which, among others, Jesuits and Latin American theologians
have been particularly active.
The pairing of faith-justice can be
achieved in the modern world through inculturation and dialogue with
people from different cultures and religious traditions. In this
context, inter-religious dialogue has been heavily influenced by the
experience of Jesuits in Asia; Jesuits have been reflecting upon
inculturation since the time of Father Arrupe, and Africa too has made
its own specific contribution. The Society of Jesus' mission is not,
then, to dedicate itself to one specific activity, as is the case with
other religious congregations which were founded to teach, to cure the
sick or for other ends. It has a broad and comprehensive mission which
today includes, as fundamental aspects of the service of faith,
commitment to justice, and dialogue with the cultures, traditions and
religious experience of the people among who we live. These factors are
always present together, although in different
"doses" depending on the
situation in the various parts of the world. Our most recent General
Congregation, the thirty-fifth, forcibly confronted the mission of the
Society of Jesus with the rapid transformations of today's world, in
particular globalisation with all its ambiguities, possibilities and
risks; and scientific and technological progress, particularly in the
field of communications, and its consequent repercussions on culture and
our view of the human person and human society. With this in mind
and taking account of the conflicts, divisions and tensions which affect
mankind, society and even the individual in so many different ways, the
thirty-fifth General Congregation chose to describe the mission of the
Society of Jesus as a vocation aimed at reconciliation; that is, at
establishing a just and reconciled relationship with God, with others
and with the creation. Thus it laid down a broad framework which
includes man's religious and spiritual dimension, his social and
relational aspects, and his responsibility for the creation, the
environment in which he lives and in which he traces his path through
history.
Three words of Pope Benedict XVI
The mission
of the Society of Jesus is, of course, part of the mission of the
Church, and the Society emphasises the fact that, in carrying out that
mission, it receives guidance from the Pope himself who, having a view
over the universal panorama of the world and the Church, is best placed
to identify the priorities for the work of the Society. The documents of
the latest General Congregation also contain continuous references to
the Pope's words to Jesuits concerning the great importance of their
service to the Church in today's world. I believe, then, that it is
natural - and all the more so in view of my own personal service - for
us to examine some of the main themes identified by Pope Benedict XVI in
speaking about the mission of the Church, themes which are very
important for us to consider here at this conference.
"New evangelisation".
A
few days ago I was speaking to an American Jesuit father who teaches
theology at a high school here in the United States. He told me that the
vast majority of the students who follow his lessons have almost no
basic knowledge of our Christian faith. However, they are often well
motivated, free from negative prejudices and open to interesting
discussions, not only about education and theory but involving all
aspects of life, such as for example moments of prayer and the
examination of conscience. Today we cannot take it for granted that a
foundation of Christian culture and formation exists among young
people. I believe that this is an increasingly common experience in many
parts of the world, and it is particularly prevalent in areas with a
longstanding Christian tradition where secularisation is making rapid
advances, where faith is largely absent from contemporary culture and
communication, and where the capacity of families to transmit the faith
is becoming weaker, indeed the family itself is often in crisis or no
longer exists. In other parts of the world we have to take account of
the fact that many students are not Catholic or not Christian. In
any case, increasingly often our educational service is a seedbed in
which to instil the basic principles of faith and of Christian life into
young people who no longer come to us already trained in, or at least
oriented towards, a Christian education. This is one aspect of the
general situation of the Church in today's world. It was the reason that
John Paul II began to speak about
"new evangelisation", and that
Benedict XVI has chosen to dedicate the forthcoming Synod of Bishops to
the same subject, due to be held in Rome in October this year with
representatives from all over the world. As part of the same process,
Benedict XVI has also called the
"Year of Faith", in order to raise the
Church's awareness about the current situation and to stimulate the
desire to announce Christ to a world which has such need but does not
know the Gospel: either because it no longer knows it or because it has
never known it. With great humility we must recognise that the way in
which we have transmitted the faith for so long is no longer effective
today. The language we used to use has lost its meaning, and we are not
present in the environments in which young people live, communicate and
grow. ... In his book/interview
"Light of the World" the Pope states
this clearly, also giving some examples.
"Modern man no longer
immediately understands that the blood of Christ on the Cross was spilt
in atonement for our sins. These concepts are great and true, yet they
no longer find a place in our forma mentis and in our image of
the world. They must, so to speak, be translated and understood afresh.
We must, for example, understand that the concept of evil truly needs to
be reconceived; it cannot simply be set aside and forgotten. It must be
reconceived and transformed from within". Serving the faith and
committing ourselves to the
"new evangelisation" is, then, a primary
requirement for the mission of the Society of Jesus and the Church, one
we cannot and must not avoid.
"Educational emergency".
In a
series of talks about the pastoral care of the Church in Italy and in
the diocese of Rome, the Pope has often spoken of an
"educational
emergency, confirmed by the failures which too often crown our efforts
to form well-rounded individuals, capable of collaborating with others
and of giving meaning to their lives". Often a sense of distrust and
frustration spreads among parents and educators when they see the
difficulties they have to face to achieve good results in the formation
of young people. Sometimes the responsibility is attributed to the
fragility of the new generations, sometimes to the
"generation gap"
which make the transmission of values problematic.
Benedict XVI notes
that, "in reality, it is not only the individual responsibilities of
adults and young people that are involved, but also a more widespread
mindset: a mentality and a form of culture that lead people to doubt the
value of the human person, the meaning of truth and good and, in the
final analysis, the goodness of life itself. In such a situation it
becomes difficult to transmit any worthwhile and certain values from one
generation to another: rules of behaviour and credible goals around
which people can build their lives".This is the problem of
"relativism" in our culture.
Faced with this situation, in which often
"the foundations are shaken and essential certainties are lacking" (a
situation I imagine you all understand, given the global influence of
secularised Western culture), the vital importance of authentic
education becomes manifest, and not an education which limits
"itself to
imparting notions and information while ignoring the great question of
truth, above all of that truth which can be a guide to life". Furthermore,
education must help people to find a balance between freedom and
discipline, forming characters day after day and not reneging on its
responsibility to identify rules of behaviour and life, while preparing
people to face the challenges that the future will certainly bring
(Letter from the Pope to the diocese and the city of Rome on the vital
importance of education, 21 January 2008). We all feel the need for
this kind of education: parents, teachers, society, and the young people
themselves who do not want to be left to face the challenges of life
alone. This is the education that the pedagogical tradition of the
Society of Jesus has always sought to impart, and it remains vitally
important today. Pope Benedict XVI's remarks about the educational
emergency include an interesting point which, in my view, is important
if we are to find a balance between the various aspects of education. He
believes that, in order to combat scepticism and relativism, we must
draw from three main sources: nature, Revelation and history. We must
learn to understand nature as God's creation, full of divine words
addressed to us. It must be seen not in mechanical terms, as a great
"machine", but interpreted, understood and admired in order to ensure
that it is not exploited and ravaged. It must be cultivated and
administered for the good of humankind, as the astronauts said in their
dialogue with the Pope at the beginning of my talk. Moreover, we must
learn to understand our own cultural and religious history. God's
Revelation gives us fundamental guidance which must be discovered and
applied in the new situations man always meets on his journey; it helps
us humbly to understand and appreciate the dignity and vocation of the
human person.Pope Benedict concluded one of his talks on this subject
with a fine definition summarising exactly what education is:
"Education
means forming new generations so that they know how to relate to the
world, strengthened by a significant memory, by a shared inner patrimony
of real knowledge which, while recognising the transcendent goal of
life, guides thoughts, emotions and judgements " (Address to the Italian
Episcopal Conference, 27 May 2010). These remarks have already introduced us to the third theme to emerge from the Pope's words:
faith and reason.
Modern culture has been profoundly influenced by science and the
demands of rationality. Indeed, the power of human reason, developed
through science and technology, has been exalted to the point of
creating the illusion that it alone can resolve all problems and
overcome all obstacles, rejecting any other source of regulation. It is
vitally necessary to help people understand that the Christian faith is
not in any way averse to reason; rather it is its friend and ally, on
condition that reason does not close in upon itself excluding and
marginalising the faith. Reason, if it becomes entirely autonomous,
is exposed to the risk of arrogance, it loses a sense of man's
limitations, of the need for ethics to guide behaviour, of the values of
solidarity, gratuitousness and love to ensure that coexistence and the
journey of peoples and of the human race retain a sense of humanity and
purpose. On all the important occasions he has addressed the modern
world (such as British society at Westminster Hall, the German
Parliament in Berlin, the political and cultural worlds of Africa in
Cotonou, etc., when he has explicitly raised the issue of the
relationship between the Church's faith and the great questions of
peoples and modern societies),
Benedict XVI has always spoken of the
complementarity of reason and faith, their reciprocal need of one
another in order to ensure an overall equilibrium in the journey of
mankind. Economic and social justice also requires great commitment
on the part of human reason, a reason which must have the courage to
face the increasing complexity of globalised problems, but which must
remain aware that it is limited, guided and oriented by the search for
truth. In this way reason will not become an instrument in the search
for absolute power, which is always a latent risk and has found
expression, for example, in the tragedies of totalitarianism or the
craze for profit which has led to the economic crisis currently
affecting so many countries of the world. The dialogue between faith
and the natural and human sciences, between faith and art, between faith
and culture in all its expressions, is one of the most pressing
imperatives of our time. It is the necessary continuation of Vatican
Council II's message on the Church and the modern world, and has been an
essential element of the mission of the Society of Jesus ever since its
origins.
Education must present young people with a continuous and
increasingly profound search for the truth about things, about
coexistence and human history, about the relationship between each one
of us and the mystery of God. This is a fascinating adventure which can
last an entire lifetime, and it is the education we must seek to achieve
in order to respond to the essential needs of humanity. Please allow
me to express my own immense personal respect for secondary education,
the education to which you dedicate your lives. I will quote from a
famous speech delivered by Father Arrupe to your predecessors in 1980.
"Distinct from primary education and university education, secondary
education gives us access to the minds and hearts of the young, of boys
and girls, at an important moment in their development: when they are
capable of a coherent and reasoned assimilation of human values
illuminated by Christianity, but when their personalities have not yet
acquired traits that are difficult to modify. It is above all in
secondary education that the mentality of young people undergoes
systematic formation. Consequently, it is the time in which they must
create a harmonious blend between faith and modern culture" (Fr Arrupe,
I nostri collegi oggi e domani,
Rome 1980, no. 2). This was certainly my own experience fifty years ago
when my vocation to the religious life as a Jesuit came into being as a
life choice. Therefore I continue to believe that this is fundamentally
true.
Returning to the educational tradition of the Society of Jesus
I
do not think that I have to remind you of the documents concerning the
educational activities of the Society of Jesus in secondary education;
you probably know them better than I do. Certainly, when I was
Provincial in the 1980s it was with great joy that I received the text:
The Characteristics of Jesuit Education
which, I felt, clearly and effectively expressed the fascinating
relationship between the Ignatian view of the world and of man, the
pedagogy of the Spiritual Exercises, and the pedagogy we must practise
in our own educational institutes in accordance with our mission. However,
I would like to recall a number of points about our educational
activity which have been highlighted by Fathers General, in relation to
the updating and modernisation of the mission of the Society of Jesus.
Arrupe Father
Arrupe gave great emphasis to the issue of forming people for service, a
service in keeping with the Gospel. He used the famous phrase "men and
women for others" to identify the kind of people we wish to form; this
means forming them in faith, but faith works through charity and charity
translates into actions of justice and solidarity.
In this ideal view
of the person it is easy to see the translation of the Ignatian ideal
"to love and serve in all things", and that of the dual aspect of the
Society's mission as it was formulated following the Council: "service
of faith and promotion of justice". All efforts towards academic success
and excellence must be clearly guided, not by egoism and the desire to
impose of one's own personality upon others, but by generous service to
other people and to society. Father Arrupe also highlighted the need
to form people "open to their own time and to the future", people
capable of continually meeting change and new challenges throughout
their lives, with optimism and courage.
For this reason it is vitally
important to educate people to critically evaluate novelties and to show
responsible freedom. Finally, Father Arrupe identified the ideal of a
"balanced" person. I find this aspect of striving after balanced
integration particularly intersting.
"The ideal of our colleagues", he
said,
"is not to produce little academic monsters, dehumanised and
introverted, nor devout believers allergic to the world in which they
live and incapable of resonating". And he went on:
"Our ideal is closer
to the Greek model, in its Christian version; balanced, serene and
constant, open to everything that is human".
Father Arrupe also turned
his attention to the relationship between technology and humanism,
saying: "The mission of our centres of education is to save humanism,
but without renouncing the use of technology". (Fr. Arrupe, I nostri collegi oggi e domani,
1980, no. 14). It is my belief that the tradition of the Society of
Jesus continually calls us to maintain an equilibrium between, on the
one hand, an academic formation in keeping with the times and, on the
other, an appreciation and taste for humanism, including such aspects as
history, art, philosophy and the uplifting contemplation of beauty.
If
we think of a figure such as Matteo Ricci, who was such an eminent
expression of Jesuit education of his time, the greatest of the
missionaries to China, a man capable of building bridges between two
very different cultures, then we may understand how vital scientific and
humanist formation are for the mission of evangelisation on the
Church's most demanding and important frontiers.
Kolvenbach
Despite
these upbeat views of Father Arrupe we cannot hide the fact that, for a
considerable period of time, many people in the Society of Jesus
thought that our schools had achieved their historical mission and that
the Jesuits would do better to dedicate themselves to other forms of
apostolate. This attitude was influenced by a global tendency of
criticism against schools, a fall in the numbers of Jesuits, and the
idea that schools were incapable of educating people in justice and the
transformation of society. However Father Kolvenbach, during his long
tenure as Superior General, clearly reaffirmed the importance of this
apostolate within the overall framework of the Society of Jesus'
mission. Thus at Arequipa in 1998 he said that "today it would be
irresponsible to abandon not only the field of education, but also that
of schools. From the point of view of the mission, education and schools
continue to be important terrain for evangelisation. There are few
other places in which there is such close and constant interaction, for
so many hours a day and over so many years, between pupils, families,
teachers and the community. Renouncing education would mean abandoning
an important part of evangelisation and of 'new evangelisation'" (Fr
Kolvenbach,
Los desafíos de la educación cristiana a las puertas del tercer milenio, Arequipa 1998).
Father
Kolvenbach dedicated specific attention to the issue of globalisation,
as being the current scenario for our educational work, also in
secondary schools. He highlighted the great possibilities it offers to
human development, as well as its risks, which require the careful
application of critical discernment, especially in regions of the world
in which the neoliberal view of economic life prevails. As Father Arrupe
before him, he warned against a use of the classical criteria of
quality, competence and efficiency when not moderated and guided by the
spirit of Christianity.
What is important, in fact, is to ensure the
development of the entire person and of all people; in other words, to
look to the good of everyone and not just of the privileged, to exchange
know-how and not concentrate it for the benefit of the few and the
disadvantage of the many, who remain poorer not only in material goods
but also in knowledge. In a world in which "knowledge is power", we must
remember the importance of "knowing with" and of "knowing for".
"In a
world in which knowledge degenerates in limitless competition, and in
which individualism and lack of solidarity create new barriers and forms
of exclusion, we must reinstate the idea of knowledge for the sake of
others, of knowledge and power as service, solidarity, and compassion in
the full meaning of the word" (ibid.). Likewise, striving after
efficiency and results must not cause us to lose sight of the reasons
and the goals of science, technology, economics, and life itself. Father
Kolvenbach emphasised that
"the efficiency and results sought after by a
Catholic school must remain within the framework of the theology and
ethics of ends and means, always subordinated to the glory of God, which
is the good of the human person" (ibid.). With far-sighted intuition he
also spoke of an "ecology" which had to concern itself with the air we
breathe in our schools, a pure and new air distinct from the
contaminated atmosphere which so often surrounds and invades us:
unbridled individualism, ferocious competitiveness, lack of solidarity,
materialism, hedonism, insensitivity towards others and their exclusion
and marginalisation, lack of ethical principles and lack of compassion
(ibid.). I find this theory of an overall human ecology very
interesting, and it also emerges today in the words of Pope Benedict,
who invites us to care not only for the natural environment in which we
live, but first and foremost for the equilibrium of people, in their
relationships with others and with God. Here once again what we are
seeking is integral humanism.
In the new digital communication world
Turning
now to consider the state of education in recent years, we note that
our mission has been increasingly marked by new communications
technologies, and by the culture and mentality they have created and
diffused. This is the culture in which our young people are born, grow
up and live, and in which we educators accompany them on their journey.
Our intention is not in any way to reject that culture, but to seek how
to live within it, exploiting its positive potential and avoiding its
risks. I do not, of course, have to explain this to you, who are well
aware of the problems you encounter face to face every day in your young
people.
I will limit myself, then, to two points which I have
discussed on various occasions with a good Jesuit Father, a
"guru" of
the new media, a former school teacher, like you, and currently
editor-in-chief of a Jesuit cultural magazine, La Civiltà Cattolica,
Antonio Spadaro (cfr A.Spadaro,
La spiritualità dei nuovi ‘barbari’, Civ.Catt., 21.7.2012). The
first point is educating people in deep and significant human
relationships. The endless multiplication of contacts on the Internet
can, in fact, lead to the illusion of cultivating many friendships. But
in most cases all it involves are superficial relationships which never
culminate in a personal exchange of life experiences, the only thing
that can enrich people and help them grow. Benedict XVI raised the
question in his most recent homily for Pentecost. "It is true", he said,
"that we have increased our capacity to communicate, to exchange
information and to transmit news, but can we say that our capacity to
understand one other has increased or rather, paradoxically, that we
understand one another less?" Likewise, the Pope's marvellous Message
for the 2009 World Day of Social Communications focused on the theme of
"relationships between people" in the world of digital communication. We
must seek to move from mere "connection" or superficial communication,
to the experience of "communion", authentic friendship, concrete
solidarity. Young people must be made aware that the Internet, if well
used, opens important possibilities for dialogue between people from
different countries, cultures, religions and backgrounds, a space in
which to nurture understanding and tolerance. Thus, by using the
potential of the Internet, the aspect of dialogue which we mentioned
earlier as being an essential part of the mission of the Society of
Jesus today, can perhaps become a dimension of our educational activity.
And perhaps the construction of a "real network" of relationships among
your schools may be an opportunity to transfer young people from the
level of digital or virtual communication to that of more profound and
complete human encounter and interaction. One further aspect which touches us profoundly as educators is that of forming people for
interior life
in a world in which continuous (not to say obsessive) surfing on the
Internet seems to make moments of reflection, contemplation and inner
silence ever more rare, and thus makes it increasingly difficult to
raise the most profound questions about the meaning of life. In this
context it might be helpful to reflect more carefully on the
"interactive" aspect of modern online communications. Indeed, it is not
true that people are obliged simply to move continually from one point
to another of the Internet while remaining on the surface, and that they
do not have the possibility of becoming more profoundly involved. I
would like to raise two issues for our reflections on this theme.
Firstly, I know a community of consecrated persons who are trying to
make online resources available for young people to help them discern
and reflect on questions about the meaning of their lives, on the basis
of the concrete experiences and questions they have to face every day,
in a highly informal and not "catechistic confessional" manner. This
presupposes that people in search of themselves and of God meet on the
Internet, and that a profound dialogue can be established with them.
Secondly, the spirituality St. Ignatius teaches us in the Spiritual
Exercises is highly "interactive", because it obliges us to involve
ourselves personally in the episodes of the Gospel we examine, to
interact and speak with the evangelical characters and to react with
spiritual attitudes, with decisions and intentions. Being educated in
this way to spiritual interactivity, and not to passive contemplation,
can give rise to a form of spiritual life capable of accompanying and characterizing the "life on the web" of young people today.
This
overcomes the negative view according to which the Internet surfer must
by definition be someone who remains on the surface and is incapable of
entering into the depth of things. I hope that these considerations
do not seem to stray from the point. They are intended as small glimpses
of a broader picture, showing the unbroken relationship between the
great objectives of the Jesuits', their spirituality (discernment and
interactive spiritual quest guided by the Gospel) and our daily work as
educators with the young people of our time, who are in search of
themselves and of God.
Working together for the mission
Finally,
I want to touch on just one more aspect of the mission of the Society
of Jesus: that of working together, in collaboration, for the mission. In
truth, I do not feel I have to say very much because it is obvious that
we have to work together for the mission. In Vatican Radio, where I
have worked for twenty years (and which does not belong to the Society
of Jesus, but which is entrusted to the Jesuits) we Jesuits number
around fifteen in a total staff of 350. In your schools too, I believe,
Jesuits are a small minority with respect to the total number of
educators. Therefore, we are all aware that our schools exist only
because we all collaborate together in a shared mission which the
Jesuits cannot achieve alone. As Father General Nicolas says: the
mission of the Society is too big to be carried forwards by the efforts
of the Jesuits alone. He also says:
"Today more than ever, as we see the
horizons of the mission expand, we must - more decisively, more humbly
and more joyfully - experience collaboration with others as a
fundamental aspect of our way of working". And not only the Father
General, but also the most authoritative body in the Society of Jesus,
the most recent the General Congregation, solemnly and explicitly
expressed the same conviction:
"The Ignatian tradition, when expressed
by a plurality of voices, - men and women, religious and laity,
movements and institutions, communities and individuals - becomes more
welcoming, more vigorous, more capable of enriching the Church" (CG 35,
D.6, no. 23). If we contemplate the educational mission we have been
discussing until now, its importance and its beauty, then we find, I
believe, that nothing therein is the exclusive property of the Jesuits,
nothing cannot be shared and lived by others who feel the call. Jesuits
may be the animators and custodians of a certain spirit and a certain
tradition, but this spirit and this tradition can be subsumed by others
who can act with no less conviction and passion. That means you! And I
thank you for it, expressing the hope that you will be faithful and
enthusiastic interpreters of a great educational tradition and vocation,
for the good of the Church and of so many young people who ask for
guidance as they seek the most beautiful meaning of life, and thus
"give
to God His greatest glory".
Thank you.
Link (here) to Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J. statement at Vatican Radio
