(standing, from left) Jesuit Community Rector T. Frank Kennedy, S.J., with Stanislaus Alla, S.J., and Willy Moka, S.J., in Saint Mary’s Hall
sociology as well as philosophy and theology. (Another two dozen international Jesuits are enrolled at the School of Theology and Ministry on the Brighton campus; they typically pursue ecclesiastical degrees in theology and live in a Jesuit community adjacent to that campus.) At one time, Catholic colleges and universities in Rome, Paris, and Louvain, Belgium, were the prime destinations for Jesuits going abroad for graduate study; few came to Boston College. That has changed significantly in the past decade or so, says T. Frank Kennedy, S.J., rector of the Boston College Jesuit community. “Boston College has become one of the leading global centers of graduate education for young Jesuits,” rivaling Louvain and Paris, Kennedy points out. This, he adds, reflects the University’s “reputation as a preeminent center of Jesuit liberal arts education,” which has become known to potential students, including Jesuits, around the world. Educating the laity has been a critical part of the Jesuit mission since the Society opened its first school in Sicily in 1547, Kennedy observes. As he sees it, the Jesuits’ doctoral work at Boston College helps “carry on the educational mission of the Society.” Asked why he came to Boston College, Alla, who arrived here in 2006 with a Flatley Fellowship for graduate theological study, replies, “It’s a hub of the Jesuit cross-pollination of ideas and insights.” He speaks
as a Jesuit from India, a thriving domain of the Society of Jesus; more than a third of the Jesuits in formation worldwide are members of Jesuit provinces in that country. But, he says, pointing toward St. Mary’s Hall from across Linden Lane, “This building has more Jesuit wisdom in the world than any other perhaps.” He refers mainly to theological knowledge and internationally prominent experts in that discipline such as James Keenan, David Hollenbach, and Francis Sullivan—all members of the University Jesuit community. The directors of his dissertation are Keenan and a Jesuit at Harvard Divinity School, Francis X. Clooney, who teaches comparative theology. Alla’s field research has taken him to Catholic and Hindu hospitals in India to examine how the institutions treat patients from the lower castes, how families come together to make decisions about treatment, and other medical concerns. He has also adapted Hindu concepts such as dharma (usually translated as “to hold together”) to develop an ethic of social responsibility in health care. “My purpose is to help foster interreligious learning in India for the mutual enrichment of the two ethical worlds,” Christian and Hindu, says Alla. “That will be an area of my lifetime project.” He plans to wrap up his dissertation during the fall of 2012 and return to the Vidyajyoti (“Light of Knowledge”) College of Theology in Delhi, where he previously taught moral theology
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to undergraduates. For his part, Moka, entering his third year of doctoral study, expects to receive his Ph.D. in 2015. At that point he will return to teach philosophy to Jesuit scholastics in central Africa, where he may also emerge as a public intellectual amid the region’s evolving political scene. “You need structures for human rights to become a reality. And that’s not the case for many of our African countries,” he observes, referring to institutions such as an independent judiciary and nongovernmental “civil society” organizations. In addition to their studies, the international Jesuits also minister pastorally either on campus or in local parishes. “I’m first a Jesuit, and then a professor and someone who does research,” Moka says. “I don’t need to neglect the priestly aspect of my life.” Educating international Jesuits is not without its challenges, as Kennedy notes. For one thing, since 9/11 it has become harder to secure American visas for the men. “Some have a tough time getting back” into the United States after a visit home, he says. That aside, Kennedy uses a Latin phrase coined by Virgil to describe all of the Jesuits studying at Boston College—spes gregis, “the hope of the flock.” He explains, “We’re trying to form men to go out and take the places of those who went ahead of them.”