Depth, Universality, and Learned Ministry - Challenges to Jesuit Higher Education today

Sep 29, 2026

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Remarks delivered by Adolfo Nicolás, S.J. as Superior General of the Society of Jesus at the 2010 conference “Networking Jesuit Higher Education: Shaping the Future for a Humane, Just, Sustainable Globe,” in Mexico City. The speech addresses how globalization and new interdependence challenge Jesuit higher education’s mission, emphasizing the need for a common and universal response across diverse institutions. It highlights three related mission challenges: promoting depth of thought and imagination, re-discovering universality, and renewing learned ministry, with an example on technology’s benefits and risks in education.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

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How does globalization challenge Jesuit higher education?

Three related mission challenges

Depth, Universality, and Learned Ministry: Challenges to jesuit higher Education today Adolfo nicoLás, S.J. Superior General of the Society of Jesus Remarks for “Networking Jesuit Higher Education: Shaping the Future for a Humane, Just, Sustainable Globe” Mexico City – April 23, 2010 How does this new context challenge us tore-direct the mission of Jesuit higher education? I AM VERY HAPPY TO BE WITH YOU THIS MORNING, ON THIS REMARKABLE OCCASION, AS COLLEAGUES OF NEARLY ALL OF THE ROUGHLY 200 INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION OPERATING UNDER THE BANNER OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS GATHER TO CONSIDER THE IMPORTANCE OF JESUIT EDUCATION AND ITS FUTURE. I am happy to greet all of you – collaborators in the mission and ministry of the Society, Jesuits, friends of the Society and of Jesuit higher education, and any students who might be present. I thank Father José Morales, President of the Iberoamericana, and the staff of the Iberoamericana for their hospitality and extraordinary efforts in ensuring all the arrangements for this conference. Finally, I thank all of you for your participation in Jesuit higher education and in this conference, which some of you began before arriving here by authoring the excellent papers that served to stimulate our discussions. For the sake of simplifying language, I will use “universities” when referring to the wide range of higher education institutions represented in this assembly, ranging from specialized research centers to technical institutes, to colleges and to large, complex universities. In the past two years in my present service, I have traveled to many parts of the world to encounter Jesuits and our collaborators, and I have always emphasized that I am as eager – in fact, more eager – to listen and to learn, rather than to speak from the lofty – and mythical – heights of Borgo Santo Spirito 4. I bring this samedialogical spirit to this meeting of Jesuit higher education. As I listened yesterday to your discussion of regional challenges and the three frontier challenges that you selected to address, I could see that you already tackle many of the “serious contemporary problems” that Pope John Paul II identified for us in his apostolic constitution, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, and that you are doing so with the depth of thought, imagination, moral passion, and spiritual conviction that characterize Catholic and Jesuit education at its best. What I wish to share this morning, therefore, should be taken as adding my perspective to what I hope will be an ongoing and ever deeper conversation on the future of Jesuit higher education. My own experience is that university people, especially university presidents, are not shy about sharing their points of view, so I am confident as you continue your consideration of important issues that your conversations will, at the very least, be spirited and insightful! Ad o l f o N i c o l á s , s . J . | A P R I L 2 0 1 0 1 Depth, Universality, and Learned Ministry: challenges to jesuit higher education today More and less To illustrate the benefit as well as the danger of technology in education, Fr. Nicolás shared an anecdote from the mid-1990s, when he was serving as Provincial in Japan. “A couple of Jesuit professors from Sophia University told me, ‘The Internet is wonderful. You get so much information so quickly and so easily.’ And at the same time, each said, ‘But I have to confess that now I read less, I think less, and I spend less time discerning what to do.’ If professors say this, what can we say of the students?” The theme of our conference – Networking Jesuit Higher Education: Shaping the Future for a Humane, Just, Sustainable Globe – involves a bold proposal. It suggests that we have today an extraordinary opportunity to have a hand in helping to shape the future, not only of our own institutions, but of the world, and that the way we can do that is through “networking.” That word,“networking,” so often used these days,

FAQs

Who delivers these remarks and in what capacity?

Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., delivers the remarks as Superior General of the Society of Jesus.

What major global context is used to frame the challenge?

The speech frames the challenge through globalization and the “explosion of worldwide interdependence.”

What are the three challenges to Jesuit higher education’s shared mission?

The remarks outline three challenges: promoting depth of thought and imagination, re-discovering and implementing universality, and renewing learned ministry.

Sep 29, 2026

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