“INFLAMAD INFLAMAD EL ELMUNDO” MUNDO P. David C. McCallum, S.J. Vicepresident Mission Integration & Vicepresident Le Moyne College, United States
The Program for Discerning Leadership:
A SPECIAL PROJECT OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF JESUIT UNIVERSITIES (IAJU) & THE GENERAL CURIA OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS “I dream of a ‘missionary option,’ that is a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channelled for the evangelisation of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation” (Evangelii Gaudium 27)
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hat role can Jesuit Higher Education play in supporting this bold vision for a missionary, outward facing Church that is not just reformed, but transformed in every dimension? In this dream for a synodal Church, a community of disciples “on the road together,” Pope Francis challenges clerical privilege, autocratic bureaucracy, and the defensive, institutional centricity still characteristic of much of the Church today. These are in fact the very factors which he identified at the root of the twin crises of clergy sexual abuse and the mismanagement of the scandals by Church authorities. Rather, it is in light of these realities that Pope Francis calls the Church to conversion from these “diseases” at the personal, communal, and structural levels and calls forth a distinct kind of authority and leadership going forward. This “transformed” way of doing things demands a mature form of authority that humbly and generously serves people and while also bearing responsibility for the institution. It also calls for a joyful, courageous, and creative leadership, which embraces vulnerability and acknowledges the need for grace. It is Pope Francis’ call and his request for the Society of Jesus to share the gift of discernment that inspired the founding of the Program for Discerning Leadership a special project of the International Association of Jesuit Universities in collaboration with the Office of Discernment and Apostolic Planning at the Jesuit General Curia, Le Moyne College, Georgetown University, ESADE, and the Pontifical Gregorian University, as well as the Union of Superiors General and the International Union of Superiors General.
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