Spring 2015 Stories

By Theresa Ladrigan–Whelpley
Director of Bannan Institutes, Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education,
Santa Clara University 

All universities seek to educate future leaders. But what does it mean to form leaders in the Ignatian tradition? In the first principle and foundation of the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola urges: “I ought to desire and elect only that which is more conducive to the end for which I am created.” Leadership in the Ignatian tradition is borne of vocational integration. When we are living into the ends for which we are created, we seek to affect a reality greater than ourselves. Ignatian leadership is not limited to any one cause, school, or organizational theory. It is a way of proceeding that is marked by an ongoing commitment to personal and communal transformation.

Through a dynamic series of lectures, public dialogues, and days of reflection, the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education at Santa Clara University hosted a yearlong Bannan Institute exploring the integration of justice, faith, and the intellectual life within the vocational practice of Ignatian leadership. The current issue of explore includes highlights from this 2014-2015 Bannan Institute and invites further reflection through the responses of faculty, staff, students, and alumni from Santa Clara University and beyond.

Engaging Racial Justice
The first chapter in the issue considers the relationship between Ignatian leadership and the realization of racial justice. Noted public intellectual and activist, Cornel West, opens up the dialogue with his lecture, “Black Prophetic Fire: Intersections of Leadership, Faith, and Social Justice.” Here, West links the project of Jesuit education with the quest for truth, the willingness to embrace suffering and death, and the prophetic call of social justice—all necessary for the realization of racial justice in the United States. In her essay, “On Being Maladjusted to Injustice,” Brett Solomon from the field of education, expands on West’s message, reflecting a true urgency for cultural competence and compassionin-action by all leaders today. Considering the way in which the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner stirred national conscience, Jade Agua of Santa Clara University and Karla Scott of Saint Louis University, each reflect on the practices needed to meaningfully address issues of privilege, prejudice, and systematic oppression on our Jesuit campuses.

Witnessing to the Truth of Human Dignity
Ignatian leaders bear witness to the truth of human dignity in the midst of structural injustice. Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the assassination of the Jesuits and their collaborators at the Universidad de Centroamericana (UCA) in El Salvador, the second chapter in this issue attends to the living legacy of the UCA martyrs. Lucía Cerna, friend of the UCA Jesuit community and housekeeper, offers a first-hand account of the killings, accompanied by a reading of El Salvador’s history and the intersections of Salvadoran and United States politics by historian, Mary Jo Ignoffo. In light of their testimony, Robert Lassalle-Klein contributes a theological reflection on the suffering servant, the persecuted prophet, and the cry of the crucified people in El Salvador. Ian Layton and Natalie Terry conclude the chapter with stirring vocational reflections on the transformative demands of educated solidarity.

Living a Public Faith
The third chapter explores the centrality of faith within Ignatian leadership. Beginning with an excerpt from this year’s Santa Clara Lecture delivered by John O’Malley, S.J., this chapter examines the leadership and spirituality of Pope Francis. O’Malley presents five focal issues from Vatican II that he posits are crucial for understanding what Pope Francis is enacting in the church today: collegiality, the local church, dialogue, reconciliation with other religions, and servant leadership. He then goes on to consider the ways in which Pope Francis’ leadership is grounded in the principles and practices of the Spiritual Exercises and Francis’ vocation as a Jesuit. In his essay, “Interreligious Dialogue and Leadership: Building Relationships as Persons,” longtime collaborator and companion of Pope Francis, Rabbi Abraham Skorka, contributes a reflection on the importance of friendship within interreligious dialogue and community. Sally Vance Trembath concludes the chapter with an integrative essay considering how Ignatian leadership at Vatican II has underwritten the vocations of both O’Malley and Skorka, and continues to frame the project of Jesuit and Catholic higher education today.

Discerning the Future of the Liberal Arts College
Deepening the dialogue around Ignatian leadership and education, the final chapter in this issue examines the contributions of the liberal arts college (long a centerpiece of Jesuit higher education) to the flourishing of democracy. Interdisciplinary scholar, Martha Nussbaum, opens up the chapter with her essay “Citizens and Leaders: The Public Role of the Humanities.” Nussbaum argues that the future of robust democracies depends upon the abilities of citizens to think critically, privilege the common good, and imagine sympathetically the predicaments of other persons—each of which she suggests, is cultivated most tangibly through an integrated liberal arts education. Though in agreement with Nussbaum’s basic thesis, philosophy professor, Shannon Vallor, inquires if Nussbaum’s presupposition concerning the innate valuation of democracy is valid. In her responsive essay, “A Fragile Pedestal,” Vallor suggests that cultural appraisements of democracy are increasingly contingent upon democracy’s perceived (and perhaps somewhat tenuous) association with economic prosperity. Nicole Kelly concludes this issue of explore with a reflection on the way in which her own liberal arts education grounds and inspires her vocational trajectory.

Leadership in the Ignatian tradition is borne of vocational integration. It is a way of proceeding that is marked by an ongoing commitment to personal and communal transformation.

The dialogues we have hosted this year through the 2014-2015 Bannan Institute, and which continue here through this issue of explore, invite us to consider Ignatian leadership as a way of proceeding marked by a vocational commitment to personal and communal transformation. We hope that you will be challenged and engaged in reading this issue, as you consider how the practices of justice, faith, and the intellectual life are integrated within your own vocation and leadership.

Endnotes 

1. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, in George Ganss, S.J., ed., Ignatius of Loyola: Spiritual Exercises and Selected Works (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), no. 23.