The role of jesuit universities in cultivating leaders for peace-building humanism

Silva, Catarina Vieira da; Petrella, Simone; Dias, Paulo; Lopes, José Manuel M.

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/54170

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Authors

Silva, Catarina Vieira da

Petrella, Simone

Dias, Paulo

Lopes, José Manuel M.

Abstract(s)

A truth that we often forget and should repeat, verbalizing it so that we become aware of it, is that man is made for peace, not war. Without peace, the world becomes inhuman. The path to peace is a dialog that makes a friend of the stranger a different one. The world is currently going through challenging times caused by nationalist, ethnic, and sometimes religious identity conflicts. Identity should be an opportunity for encounter and inclusion despite differences and not for violence. Recognizing the differences of others means recognizing the dignity of all human beings, which leads to the construction of a universal ethic based on human rights, which leads to solidarity and an idea of justice that is due to everyone. On the other hand, we have problems at the root of many wars, which has to do with the aggressive way globalization is imposed. The issues of refugees, migration, and the environment (control of natural resources) are other significant problems today. There is an inextricable link between environmental degradation, poverty, and injustice. The big problem facing many academic circles today is the issue of nonviolence as a response and path to the conflict that accompanies our world. Understanding and studying how nonviolence as a path to peace can be researched, taught, and made a reality is one of the most critical challenges for the academic world. Both the Church's Social Doctrine and the UN state that the international response to oppression and human rights violations should be multilateral since it is based on the conviction that we are all children of the same human family and that there are no territorial borders that limit our moral responsibility. The 36th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus invites Jesuit universities to focus their mission on reconciliation and justice as a necessary path to peace (D. 1, no. 34). For the Society of Jesus, the university must educate its students for leadership that creates the conditions for their action to be a path to the common good that leads to a just peace. In our work, we set out to identify the characteristics proposed by the Society of Jesus, which should accompany a leader at the end of their university career and make the education of Jesus live up to its educational motto: virtus et litterae.