On September the 2nd, the Secretary for Education (Secondary and Pre-secondary) of the Society of Jesus, Fr. José Alberto Mesa, S.J., paid a visit to The Istituto Sociale, the Jesuit School in Turin, Italy.
During his visit, which took place within the framework of the celebration of the 140th anniversary of the Institute, Fr. Mesa met with school leaders, administrative staff and had a conversation with faculty members, about the current challenges and opportunities for Jesuit Schools.
During the talk, Fr. Mesa emphasized that renewal is a permanent task in the educational work. In this sense, he alluded to Fr. Arrupe’s emblematic discourse Men for Others (1973), stating that “If the Society wants to be faithful to itself, if it does not want to betray what is most characteristic of its spirit, then paradoxically, it must profoundly change most of the concrete forms it assumes in any particular epoch”, while reinforcing this affirmation with a more recent invitation done by Fr. General Arturo Sosa, SJ to “to educate and train in a new way for a different future.”
A call for renewal that has acquired special relevance in the context of the pandemic. Fr. Mesa argued that this situation can be seen as an opportunity that requires the audacity to build a new world. To achieve this, he highlighted the potential of having a global network of more than 800 schools worldwide, with the opportunity to collaborate, exchange and respond to common challenges, such as educating for faith, depth, reconciliation and global citizenship, while taking care of our common home. A network that also has a common horizon expressed in the 10 Global Identifiers presented in the document “Jesuit Schools: A Living Tradition in the 21st Century”.
The visit concluded with meetings with the Board of Directors of the Institute and with the Jesuits of the Community: “we thank him for his precious and generous availability and for leaving us a message of hope and confidence in the future,” said Prf. Vincenzo Sibillo, General Director of the school.
Source: Communications, Istituto Sociale
