Jesuit Heritage Week to Celebrate Rich Legacy of Catholic Religious Order

The numbers are stark.

“Currently there are 22 Jesuit members of the community at Holy Cross, and two International Jesuits visiting for the semester,” says Rev. James Hayes, S.J., rector of the Jesuit community at the College. “There are only seven Jesuits finishing graduate programs this year. There are 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the nation. We have a one in four chance of getting one of the new graduates. Some of them will earn law degrees or medicine degrees. We’re a strictly undergraduate institution. Unless they feel called to a strictly undergraduate teaching, they may not want to come to Holy Cross.”

For those reasons, and more, the College will celebrate its vibrant spiritual and intellectual Jesuit heritage with a series of programs from Sept. 23 to 28. The Society of Jesus founded Holy Cross in 1843.

Eleven Banners, hung on light poles behind the Hogan Campus Center and extending from Dinand to Smith, will carry Jesuit Mottos, such as “Service of Faith and Promotion of Justice,” “Discernment,” and “Intellect and Compassion.” The mottos all express ideals that Holy Cross teaches its students.

“We hope to raise consciousness on campus, inside the classroom, outside the classroom that we’re part of a great heritage,” says Fr. Hayes, who is also an associate Chaplain on campus. “Hopefully the heritage that was part of the foundation will continue to be kept alive in the minds and hearts of key administrators, faculty, Chaplains and passed on to students.”

Deepening and intensifying the community’s knowledge and appreciation for the history of the Jesuits has been on the minds of administrators for years. As part of a self-study of the College in 2002, the College’s Board of Trustees formed a Task Force on Mission. The Task Force has been meeting with various groups and constituencies on campus to help it understand how the College’s mission informs institutional life.

To help focus the dialogue, make it more productive, and ensure that it takes into account the campus culture and value, President Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J., formed a College committee on mission and identity. Fr. Hayes, a member of the Trustees’ Task Force on Mission, was appointed chair of the committee. Approximately 25 members of the community — including students, faculty, and staff — serve on the committee.

“The purpose of the Mission and Identity committee is to highlight our Jesuit mission and our Catholic identity at Holy Cross,” says Fr. Hayes. “How can we encourage it? How can we highlight it? How can we promote it? How can we best articulate it? How can we live it? We want to permeate the entire campus, which is why the committee is as large as it is.”

As a Jesuit college, Holy Cross seeks to exemplify the longstanding dedication of the Society of Jesus to the intellectual life, and its commitment to the service of faith and promotion of justice. Indeed, as part of its five-year Strategic Plan, one of the College’s main priorities is “To cultivate a vital relationship with the tradition and living reality of Jesuit education.”

Fr. Hayes wants the community to end the week knowing several things.

“The Society of Jesus is an international organization in 112 countries and the first religious order that dedicated itself to higher education,” he says. “The Jesuits over their 467 year history have endorsed the idea of co-curricular activities, extracurricular activities, for the benefit of the whole person. The fact that schools have drama clubs, athletics teams — this was a Jesuit ideal. Jesuits have had a great impact on education.

“The crux of the Jesuit philosophy is to form and educate men and women who will become leaders and leavening agents in the world. One of the banners will carry the words ‘Well-Educated Solidarity.’ Solidarity is learned through contact, not concepts. That’s why Jesuit schools, such as Holy Cross, push immersion programs, study abroad programs, community-based learning — because we learn by contact, not just by books.”

Related Information:

• Jesuit Heritage Week Press Release • About Holy Cross • Jesuit Community at Holy Cross