The overriding purpose of the Society of Jesus, namely "the service of faith," must also include "the promotion of justice." This new direction was not confined to those already working with the poor and marginalized in what was called "the social apostolate." Rather, this commitment was to be "a concern of our whole life and a dimension of all our apostolic endeavors." So central to the mission of the entire Society was this union of faith and justice that it was to become the "integrating factor" of all the Society's works, and in this light "great attention" was to be paid in evaluating every work, including educational institutions. (Kolvenbach, 2000:  2)

“to be a voice for those who do not possess the academic qualifications to promote and legitimate their rights." (Kolvenbach, 5)
“Industries are re-locating to poorer nations, not to distribute wealth and opportunity, but to exploit the relative advantage of low wages and lax environmental regulations. Many countries become yet poorer, especially where corruption and exploitation prevail over civil society and where violent conflict keeps erupting.” (Kolvenbach, 6)

Thanks to science and technology, human society is able to solve problems such as feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, or developing more just conditions of life, but remains stubbornly unable to accomplish this. How can a booming economy, the most prosperous and global ever, still leave over half of humanity in poverty? GC 32 makes its own sober analysis and moral assessment: "We can no longer pretend that the inequalities and injustices of our world must be borne as part of the inevitable order of things. It is now quite apparent that they are the result of what man himself, man in his selfishness, has done ... Despite the opportunities offered by an ever more serviceable technology, we are simply not willing to pay the price of a more just and more humane society."21 (Kolvenbach, 7)

When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change. Personal involvement with innocent suffering, with the injustice others suffer, is the catalyst for solidarity which then gives rise to intellectual inquiry and moral reflection.
Students, in the course of their formation, must let the gritty reality of this world into their lives, so they can learn to feel it, think about it critically, respond to its suffering and engage it constructively. They should learn to perceive, think, judge, choose and act for the rights of others, especially the disadvantaged and the oppressed. Campus ministry does much to foment such intelligent, responsible and active compassion, compassion that deserves the name solidarity. (Kolvenbach, 8)

. A legitimate question, even if it does not sound academic, is for each professor to ask, "When researching and teaching, where and with whom is my heart?" To expect our professors to make such an explicit option and speak about it is obviously not easy; it entails risks. But I do believe that this is what Jesuit educators have publicly stated, in Church and in society, to be our defining commitment.

To make sure that the real concerns of the poor find their place in research, faculty members need an organic collaboration with those in the Church and in society who work among and for the poor and actively seek justice. They should be involved together in all aspects: presence among the poor, designing the research, gathering the data, thinking through problems, planning and action, doing evaluation and theological reflection. In each Jesuit Province where our universities are found, the faculty's privileged working relationships should be with projects of the Jesuit social apostolate - on issues such as poverty and exclusion, housing, AIDS, ecology and Third World debt - and with the Jesuit Refugee
Service helping refugees and forcibly displaced people.

]Just as the students need the poor in order to learn, so the professors need partnerships with the social apostolate in order to research and teach and form. Such partnerships do not turn Jesuit universities into branch plants of social ministries or agencies of social change, as certain rhetoric of the past may have led some to fear, but are a verifiable pledge of the faculty's option and really help, as the colloquial expression goes, "to keep your feet to the fire!"

If the professors choose viewpoints incompatible with the justice of the Gospel and consider researching, teaching and learning to be separable from moral responsibility for their social repercussions, they are sending a message to their students. They are telling them that they can pursue their careers and self-interest without reference to anyone "other" than themselves.

By contrast, when faculty do take up inter-disciplinary dialogue and socially-engaged research in partnership with social ministries, they are exemplifying and modeling knowledge which is service, and the students learn by imitating them as "masters of life and of moral commitment,"28 as the Holy Father said. (Kolvenbach, 9-10)

* The twenty-eight Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States held a Conference on "Commitment to Justice in Jesuit Higher Education," at Santa Clara University (California), 5-8 October 2000, to mark the 25th anniversary of Decree 4 of the 32nd General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, and to reflect on its impact upon the Society's university apostolate in the United States. The 420 participants, among them many top administrators, endorsed Father General's address as the basis upon which to plan education for justice on every campus.