One key tenet of a Jesuit education is a commitment to teaching students how to think, not what to think. This commitment can be challenging in our current age of heated rhetoric in the public sphere, particularly involving social media. For centuries, Jesuit schools have used debate as a tool in the pursuit of truth, not simply to position one as right and the other as wrong, but to take a position, to argue it, to consider multiple perspectives in order that different approaches might enrich one another, so that individuals and communities could grow in understanding and wisdom.
Gonzaga will draw on this rich tradition as we host events and provide opportunities for students and community members to engage in civil discourse.
This approach is consistent with our identity and mission as part of the broader Catholic tradition, as well. The purpose of a Catholic university is the pursuit of truth, a pursuit that is conversational. The academic enterprise entails reading and listening, speaking, and writing. Truth emerges in conversation.
As Pope Francis wrote, “Together, we can seek the truth in dialogue, in relaxed conversation, or in passionate debate.” Catholic universities are to be places of dialogue – between faith and reason, between and among religious traditions, between disciplines, and with contemporary culture(s).
Hosting events and providing opportunities to facilitate civil discourse is one way to respond to the call of St. Pope John Paul II who, in Ex Corde Ecclesia, urged Catholic universities to renew themselves both “as universities and as Catholic through an impartial search for truth that is neither subordinated to nor conditioned by particular interests of any kind.” A Catholic university community is to be “animated by a spirit of freedom and charity . . . characterized by mutual respect, sincere dialogue, and protection of the rights of individuals.”
These principals guide Gonzaga’s commitment to civil discourse.