Higher Standards for Higher Education - The Christian University and Solidarity

Sep 29, 2026

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Ten years after the 1989 massacre at the Central American University (UCA), Dean Brackley argues for a 21st-century university defined by Christian, Catholic, and Jesuit commitments. The speech explains university service to the poor through teaching, research, and especially social projection, which spreads truth beyond campus and can trigger conflict under injustice and repression. It links Pope John Paul II’s Ex corde ecclesiae to educating for justice and responds to global “bad news” with hopeful grassroots civil-society action.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Higher Standards for Higher Education

The Christian University and Solidarity

Signs of the Times: The Bad News

Hopeful Signs: Grassroots Movements in Civil Society

5/22/2019 Higher Standards for Higher Education: Higher Standards for Higher Education: The Christian University and Solidarity Dean Brackley, S.J. Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas" San Salvador Ten years ago, in November of 1989, a commando unit of the Salvadoran armed forces entered the campus of the Central American University (UCA) and killed two women colleagues and six Jesuit priests. The tenth anniversary of the UCA massacre offers us a rich opportunity to continue our reflection on what a university must be for the 21st century, especially a Christian, Catholic and Jesuit university. The murdered university president, Ignacio Ellacuría, and those who shaped the UCA wanted a university at the service of their country. They argued that this meant the "liberation of the poor majorities". The UCA was to pursue its goal of service to the poor, and to the nation, universitariamente , that is, by doing the work proper to a university, not that of a church, a political party or some other kind of organization. A university seeks the truth. The objective of human liberation threw into sharp relief that the UCA was to pursue the truth about la realidad nacional, the national reality. The three instruments, or means, proper to the university in the pursuit of this goal were to be the familiar two of teaching and research and the less familiar one of proyección social. This last, social projection, includes all those means by which the university projects the truth it discovers directly into the social world outside the campus in order to help shape social consciousness. University personnel carried out proyección social through public speaking and appearances in the media, publications, the work of Segundo Montes􀳦s Human Rights Institute, Martín-Baró􀳦s Institute for Public Opinion and the Pastoral Center. Projecting that truth into society generated conflict. It meant unmasking the official lies. Under conditions of mass injustice, violent repression and then civil war, Ellacuría and others argued that proyección social was the most important instrument by which the UCA was to realize its mission of service. That was what led to the killings of November 1989. We cannot hope to photocopy the UCA in the U.S. Yet, we need to ask how we can shape our universities to respond more faithfully, and universitariamente, [onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/brackley.html](onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/brackley.html) 1/18 5/22/2019 Higher Standards for Higher Education: to an unjust world, in a manner analogous to what the martyrs ofthe UCA did. Several months after their deaths, John Paul II published his exhortation on Catholic higher education, Ex corde ecclesiae. It has stirred the old controversy over whether Catholic identity threatens free inquiry. But the document also challenges all in Catholic higher education to undertake teaching, research and proyección social very much in the spirit of the UCA martyrs. Of the Catholic university, it says that its research activities will . . . include study of serious contemporary problems, such as the dignity of human life, the promotion of justice for all, the quality of personal and family life, the protection of the natural environment, the search for peace and political stability, a more equitable distribution of world resources and a new economic and political order that will better serve the human community at the national and international level. University research will have to be directed toward in-depth study of the roots and causes of the grave problems of our time . . . . The document states that "The Christian spirit of service to others in promoting social justice is especially important for each Catholic university and should be shared by professors and fomented among students." The university should help promote the development of the

FAQs

What does Brackley say a university must be for the 21st century?

He argues that a Christian, Catholic, and Jesuit university should serve the poor and the nation by pursuing truth through teaching, research, and social projection.

How does “proyección social” function in the UCA’s mission?

It projects the truth the university discovers into society outside the campus to help shape social consciousness, through public speaking, media appearances, and related institutional work.

Why did social projection lead to conflict at the UCA?

Brackley explains that projecting truth generated conflict because it meant unmasking official lies, particularly under conditions of mass injustice, violent repression, and civil war.

Sep 29, 2026

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