Mr. Maraña Attends Global Seminar
I had the privilege this past June to travel to Yogyakarta, Indonesia and join eleven other educators from the United States for a global seminar that explored what Educating for Faith in the 21st Century means for Jesuit schools today.
The gathering, held from June 24 – 28, included 106 members of the Jesuit Global Network of Schools (JGNS), the organization of primary and secondary schools worldwide. The JGSN features more than 870 schools (one of which is Loyola Blakefield), educating a total of over 870,000 students. During our week in Yogyakarta, we discussed how Jesuit schools can best incorporate best practices from St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises to invite students to encounter and understand the Catholic faith, to encourage them to dialogue with other religions, and to help them cultivate a resilient faith life in the face of an increasingly secular and materialistic world.
The context provided an environment conducive for these conversations. We gathered in De Britto College, a Jesuit high school in Yogyakarta. As such, we were warmly welcomed by students and faculty who shared their food, music, and hospitality with the same sense of cura personalis we would expect to find in any Jesuit community.
The multicultural landscape also informed our prayer and conversation. Although Indonesia features the world’s largest Muslim population, many religions co-exist peacefully in the country. We visited mosques, ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples, and Catholic churches during our stay.
The impact of this seminar, however, came from the open, thoughtful, and heartfelt conversations we had with Ignatian educators from all over the world. A small discussion group to which I assigned included an art teacher from Tanzania, a principal from Slovenia, and two Jesuits from India. I had a chance to reconnect with former colleagues from the Philippines, and I finally in person a group of educators from Ireland, Colombia, and Malta, with whom I had collaborated on a virtual project a few years ago.
The seminar produced a vision statement for Jesuit Schools and educators around the world. It offers some thoughts on the key questions with which we wrestled: How do we clearly and intentionally promote the Catholic faith while dialoguing with people of many other faiths? How do we invite members of our community to experience and integrate Ignatian spirituality into everyday life? How might we help our students cultivate a relationship with the divine that lasts for a lifetime?
I look forward to engaging these questions with the Loyola community in the weeks and months to come. And although I know we might not come up with definite answers to these questions, I am left with an abiding sense of consolation knowing that we can ask them as part of one global community dedicated to the Greater Glory of God.
