1

NOVEMBER 29 1989
UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO

Twenty some years ago my predecessor, Very Revererid Pedro Arrupe of the Society of
Jesus, set forth a challenge to the University of San Francisco. Noting your presence in
one of the great cities of the world, on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, he urged you to be
open to the world, to become a multinational university, setting a pattern which other
universities could follow, in this century and the next.
I commend you for the exemplary way in which you met the challenge. You opened your
doors to students frorn Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Middie East. You
internationalized your faculty and staff. you drew upon these resources to prepare
students for life and work in a world which is increasingly interdependent, tied together
by networks of trade, communication, and politics. Among the various institutes here,
particularly worthy of mention are the Asìan/Pacific Rim Program, the Center for the
Pacific Rim, and the Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History. I encourage you to
continue your programs.
Today I want to issue a new challenge. Open the eyes and ears of your faculty and
students to all the dimensions of the world. Open their hearts to the presence of God.
It is in a Catholic university that the Church enters into scholarly dialogue with the
academic world. In his Spiritual Exercises St. Ignatius urges us to find God in all things.
God is present in all creation, working with and through every element in the cosmos.
Jesus told us, “Seek and you shall find” (Matthew 7:7). Search for God. In every
scholarly discipline explore the truth, wherever it leads, for it will ultimately lead to God.
This confidence in God’s presence guarantees academic freedom and the autonomy of
each academic discipline. In your programs of teaching and research be rigorously
faithful to the postulates and axioms proper to each individual branch of learning. But go
beyond the isolation so often characteristic of specialization. Discover how, through
interdisciplinary studies, the entire acaclemic task can be inspired and shaped by God’s
self-revelation, especially the truths and values embodied in the life and work of Jesus of
Nazareth.
Serve the faith through the promotion of justice. Ethical reflection as an essential part of
the training of all students on all levels, including professional schools, will make
students and the wider society aware of the moral dimensions of political, economic, and
scientific issues. Critical social and cultural analysis alerts people to the causes and
consequences of various trends and to the possibilities of shaping and directing them
rather than simply being victimized by them.
In this search for truth, interdisciplinary dialogue holds primacy of place. Theology must
be engaged in a serious conversation with all other disciplines in order to gain a deeper
understanding of revelation and to more effectively communicate it.
This has been done at the University of San Francisco by cross-listing theology courses
with other areas, so that students from different fields present problems to faculty trained
both in theology and other subjects. You have also offered courses taught by teams of
faculty from different disciplines. You have engaged in joìnt research and publication
 2

projects. And you have sponsored symposia and lecture series like the Davies Forum,
with faculty from different fields discussing values in American life. All of this is good,
even excellent. But I urge you to do more.
A Jesuit Catholic university must embody its distinctive character in its core curriculum.
In this core, theology must be present, not simply as one discipline among others, but as
integrating all other fields -- humanities, sciences, arts, and professions -- into wisdom. In
the Fourth Part of the Constitutions St. Ignatius wrote, “Since the end of the Society and
its studies is to aid our fellow men to the knowledge and love of God and to the salvation
of their souls; and since theology is the means most suitable te this end, in the universities
of the Society, the principal emphasìs ought to be put upon this.
During the last twenty years attempts have been made in many Jesuit universities to carry
out their mission and goals through main structures other than the curriculum; through
campus ministry, personal contact with students, value-centered education, the presence
of Jesuit teachers and administrators. All of these structures are helpful, but they are not
enough. The drastic reduction of theology and philosophy courses in the core curriculum
has made it much more difficult to give to our students an integrated vision of the
meaning of life and the skills to interpret experience in the light of revelation. Two or
three courses do not suffice to provide depth and breadth through sequential learning. It is
essential that theology be restored to the central role in the core curriculum lest our
universities follow the path of so many other previously reiigiously-oriented universities
in the United States.
This is not to impose Catholic doctrine on students or faculty. All faculty and students
from all religious traditions are invited to engage in an ecumenical, interreligious,
interdisciplinary, cross-cultural dialogue and exchange of insights in which all are
enriched. You have already begun, but you can go farther.
This leads me to my third theme: collaboration. A Jesuit, Catholic university should be
marked by profound respect on the part of all for the dignity of each person and culture
and for the gifts which each person has received from God, as well as by a willingness to
put those gifts at the service of others, to promote the common good. Administration,
faculty, and staff are all here to serve the students. We welcome laity of all religious
traditions to engage in the joint search for truth, not because there are too few Jesuits to
fill all the positìons but because all of us can learn from one another. And we want to
share our Ignatian vision and spirituality with them all.
In fidelity to official Catholic teaching, Jesuit universities should be models of
subsidiarity and corresponsibility. Encourage participation in university life, as is done in
the lìturgy, so that all can be fully engaged and fully aware of what they are doing. Your
experience at the University of San Francisco should motivate you to build bridges to the
world outside the university, serving its needs, transforming it with the light and life
generated here, working for justice and peace.
In conclusion, I want to leave you with a vision of the Jesuit university not simply as a
place to form leaders of society and business as in the past, not merely as a place where
theology is taken seriously as one discipline among others, but as a community of
scholars from many cultures, dedicated to the discovery and sharing of truth and also to
applying that truth to shape a better world, where the purpose of all creation is respected
 3

so that peace and justice flourish. Work together for the legitimacy of research, autonomy
of discipliries, and integration of knowledge, confident that the rnystery of God and
human life can always be plumbed more deeply and appreciated fully.
Finally, celebrate liturgically what you do academically. Your entire scholarly work gives
glory to God. It is a sharing in the mission of Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Gather
together as a community to reflect on what you are doing. Thank God for the opportunity
to work with and learn from one another. Rededicate yourselves to your common task.
Draw strength from one another and from the source of all wisdom -- God our Lord.