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Jesuit Heritage
Ignatius Loyola's Inspiration and
John Carroll's Imagination
This brochure begins to describe a distinctive set
of characteristics, most of which Georgetown shares with the other
27 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States and the
nearly 200 Jesuit institutions of higher learning around the world.
For example, Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, Superior General of the
Society of Jesus, describes four objectives that influenced St.
Ignatius and the early Jesuits to become involved in higher education.
These directives still determine the work of Ignatian educators
today. They strive to: 1) provide students with knowledge and
skills to excel in whatever field they choose; 2) contribute to
the education of women and men as good citizens, people of competence,
conscience, and compassion dedicated to the service of faith and
the promotion of justice; 3) celebrate the full range of human
intellectual power and achievement, viewing reason not as antithetical
to faith, but as its necessary complement; and 4) affirm a Christian
understanding of the human person as a creature of God whose ultimate
destiny is beyond the human.
These same principles guided John Carroll when he first announced
his plans for Georgetown, plans at once modest and grand. In a
letter to friends, dated 1788, he writes,
We shall begin the building of our Academy this summer. In the
beginning we shall confine our plans to a house of 63 to 64 feet
by fifty, on one of the loveliest situations, that imagination
can frame. Do not forget to give and procure assistance. On this
academy is built all my hope of permanency and success to our
holy religion in the United States.
The Jesuit college that Carroll's imagination framed so long ago
still stands as a living tradition of which every Georgetown student
is a part. Every student shares in the responsibility for keeping
this heritage alive. Georgetown University is not "Jesuit"
merely because Jesuits live and work here. Ignatius' inspiration
is for all men and women, and John Carroll's imagination shapes
the experience of all Georgetown's daughters and sons.
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