What does it mean to lead a Jesuit university today? How to engage in science and the formation of new generations in a secularized, divided, and multicultural Europe? How to proclaim faith and promote justice through deepened academic reflection?

The participants of the formation session, which took place in Vienna on October 28-30 this year, tried to find answers to these and other similar questions. The participants of the meeting were representatives of Jesuit universities in Europe associated with the Jesuit Higher Education platform. The Jesuit network, through the exchange of various experiences, aims to care for the development of Jesuit academic institutions and to support their service role and identity.

This year’s meeting focused on the theme of the identity of Jesuit universities. On the first day, participants had the opportunity to listen to two lectures devoted to the history of the founder of the Society of Jesus, St. Ignatius of Loyola. The lecturers emphasized the process of discerning the mission that Ignatius underwent together with his first companions.

The focus of the second day was on issues related to Jesuit identity in the context of the challenges faced by the Church and individual European societies. Participants had the opportunity to listen to the presentations of two close collaborators of the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Arturo Sosa SJ. They confronted the experiences of the academic world with the current priorities of the Order described in the Universal Apostolic Preferences adopted by the Jesuits (2019).

The main topic of the third day was reflection on the experience of different dimensions of academic life: research, teaching and management. The participants of the session considered the possibility of exchanging similar experiences within the mission of one university. In addition to lectures, the participants had time to read and share their own thoughts in smaller seminar groups.