The US Jesuit magazine America has published a wide-ranging interview with the Rector, Fr. Mark A. Lewis S.J., on the new configuration of the Pontifical Gregorian University according to the three missions that will make it up: the Collegium Maximum, the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute. The interview was published in two parts.
The two main challenges on the horizon are both demographic. On the one hand there is the progressive reduction in the number of Jesuits, with the consequent difficulty in finding professors in the Society of Jesus. On the other hand there is the number of students, in the varying ratio of seminarians/religious and lay people. This also raises a more general question about the sustainability, in the next decade, of a first theological cycle at all the pontifical universities in Rome.
For the 'new' Gregorian it will be fundamental to maintain the Jesuit character and the lesson of missionary inculturation that is proper to it, promoting a theology open to the world and engaged in dialogue with culture and other religions. Particular emphasis will have to be given to the quality of teaching and pedagogy, considering the variety of contexts and the very diversified experiences of the students, also learning new ways of teaching and flipping the traditional dynamics of lectures.
The challenge, according to Fr. Lewis, is 'to see where the Church and the academic world [are] going to be in 10 or 15 years', and to already move in that direction through five- and ten-year planning, to enable institutions to transform in time, despite the fact that the internet and artificial intelligence have accelerated the change. 'We have to be able to start thinking about how we adjust to the changes in our world and still remain faithful to the reform council that was Vatican II.'
Update of 6 May 2024 - Omnes magazine has also carried out an extensive interview with Rector Lewis, fully translated into seven languages:
- Read HERE the interview on Omnes.