In an era of rapid change in higher education, University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., believes Jesuit schools can evolve while staying grounded in what has worked for almost 500 years—preparing students to make a lasting, tangible impact on the world.
“The genius of Ignatius was to combine study of the humanities with character formation,” Leahy said. “Jesuit Education is apostolic. We’re trying to shape the world, influence the world through students.”
Leahy spoke at a panel on Wednesday alongside Christiano Casalini, endowed chair of Jesuit pedagogy and educational history and research scholar at the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. The panel, moderated by Elizabeth Shlala, associate dean for the core, was sponsored by the Church in the 21st Century and explored Jesuit education and its foundations.
Casalini opened the talk with a look into the origins of Jesuit education, highlighting its roots in the lived experience of students.
“Education was important for the early Jesuits from the very beginning, at least because they were all students at [a] university,” Casalini said. “They were students at the University of Paris—that’s where St. Ignatius of Loyola met his fellow students.”
Casalini emphasized the importance of community, especially through residential life, in shaping the Jesuit approach.
“They found [each other] in that space, which is something that tells [you about how important residential life is still today], for the experience of a student,” Casalini said. “You share lives together, and not only among students, but also with faculty.”
Casalini also traced how early Jesuit education experiences contributed to the development of Jesuit pedagogy.
“They had games and sports in the courtyard,” Casalini said. “These were aspects that were important to the development of the Jesuit pedagogy … where the Jesuits themselves could be at the forefront of the encounter with students.”
This mission, Casalini explained, grounds Jesuit education and has kept it relevant for centuries.
“What marks the continuity of Jesuit thinking on education throughout the century is this strong belief in the transformative power of education, in the social power of education,” Casalini said.
Leahy reflected on how Jesuit education emerged from the culture of the 16th century, which placed a lot of emphasis on classical education, including the study of languages and philosophy.
Leahy noted that mission took tangible shape in the American context, specifically in the growth of Catholic immigrant communities.
“The mass of Jesuit schools came out of the need and desire to help an immigrant church develop a more learned lay community,” Leahy said. “And so we started our schools where there were sizable populations of Catholics, and most of those were immigrants.”
Leahy also drew on the importance of mission to guide BC as a Jesuit institution and root its values and decisions.
“Jesuits started schools because they saw it as a way of not only helping individuals develop their talents, but also to use those talents for the good of others, and so mission is just critical,” Leahy said.
Reflecting on BC’s growth since its founding, Leahy noted how it has evolved in response to changing times.
“One of the aspects of Jesuit education is to adapt, and there are changing times,” he said. “BC has changed its mission, in 1864 [it] was focused on Boston—now it’s the world.”
Leahy identified that the ability to evolve while staying grounded in mission has been a hallmark of Jesuit institutions.
“Mission could change, it’s not locked in,” Leahy said. “If you are really going to be effective, I think you have to be able to evolve.”
Amid today’s complex political and cultural landscape, Leahy stressed the need for Jesuit universities to be both reflective and responsive.
“If you think of what’s going on in our country today, with federal interventions [and] executive orders—we have to adapt to changing circumstances,” Leahy said. “We have to know who we are.”
Leahy closed by emphasizing universities’ roles as dynamic spaces for cultural exchange and collective growth.
“A university is a great repository of culture, and it can spread the mission, the knowledge, the heritage,” Leahy said. “And a university brings together people from different backgrounds, and they influence one another.”
Leave a Reply