Abstract
In 1999, all 28 Jesuit Universities in the U.S. were
invited to prepare a self-study in anticipation of the
25th anniversary of the 32nd General Congregation of
the Society of Jesus (1975) and its famous Decree 4,
which made justice a central dimension of all Jesuit
ministries, including higher education. What had
been done and what had been learned in that quarter
of a century?
The first national conference was hosted by Santa
Clara University , October 4-6 , 2000. It was at this
major event that the Father-General of the Society,
Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ, delivered his
landmark address, “The Service of Faith and the
Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher
Education.” Subsequent conferences have been held
at John Carroll University in 2005 and Fairfield
University in 2009. The most recent conference was hosted by
Creighton, August 1-4, 2013. It was attended by 325
representatives of all members of the Association of
Jesuit Colleges & Universities. Each of the schools
prepared an Institutional Examen on justice. (See
the poster on Creighton’s Examen elsewhere in this
exhibit).