STATEMENT ON JESUIT AND CATHOLIC IDENTITY
Looking to the future with hope, the six universities of the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus, in concert with the Midwest Province Provincial Superior, affirm the following as constitutive of our specifically Jesuit and Catholic identity:
- Created as they are in God’s image and likeness, our students are always at the center of our mission. They and their futures are God’s very dream – as are all who work at these graced places, and all at our doorsteps and beyond as well.
- We agree wholeheartedly with the judgment of a past Superior General of the Society of Jesus that “the real measure of our Jesuit universities lies in who our students become.” Hence, an education that blends academic excellence with commitment to the Universal Apostolic Preferences of the Society of Jesus is at the heart of all we do, the better to ready our students to contribute lives of service to the world around them.
- Our universities act as the thinking heart of the Church, where the riches of the Roman Catholic Intellectual Tradition – its questions and perspectives, its grounding in the liberal arts and sciences – encounter the contemporary world in all its messiness and possibility.
- Reflection, dialogue, and discernment are fundamental to our way of proceeding, as we seek to read the signs of the times in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, especially from the perspective of people who are poor and marginalized.
- We invite all members of our university communities to bring forward the riches of their traditions toward our common project of understanding, justice, and reconciliation.
- From our commitment to Roman Catholic Social Teaching flows our commitment to creation and its care as well as our commitment to the values underlying diversity, equity, and inclusion.